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Dye-sensitized solar cells based on nanocomposite gel polymer electrolytes incorporating modified-CuO nanorod prepared by varying sonication durations

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Abstract

The nanofiller morphology plays an essential role on the efficiency of DSSCs. Copper oxide has been synthesized using sonochemical method to obtain a suitable nanofiller by altering the ultrasonication duration. The modified-CuO was incorporated into the gel polymer electrolytes formulated by poly(vinyl butyral-co-vinyl alcohol-co-vinyl acetate) (P(VB-co-VA-co-Vac)) and sodium iodide (NaI). The electrolytes with modified-CuO nanorod at different sonication durations have shown improvement in the photoconversion performance due to the enhanced ion diffusion and more percolation path for the redox couple mobility within the electrolyte system. Electrolytes prepared at 60 min sonication time exhibited the highest efficiency of 5.45%.

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The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study within the article. Raw data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by a Research university grant from Universiti Malaya, Malaysia (IF033-2020). The authors would like to thank Collaborative Research in Engineering, Science & Technology Center (CREST) for their continuous support in this research (PV027-2018). A special thank you to ECLIMO SDN BHD as well.

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  1. Centre for Ionics University of Malaya, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    N. K. Farhana, Z. L. Goh, M. Syahmi, K. Ramesh & S. Ramesh

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Farhana, N.K., Goh, Z.L., Syahmi, M. et al. Dye-sensitized solar cells based on nanocomposite gel polymer electrolytes incorporating modified-CuO nanorod prepared by varying sonication durations. Ionics 29, 2075–2085 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-023-04951-x

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