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Star poly(4-vinylpyridine)s using dendritic ATRP initiators: Synthesis, electrolyte property and performance in dye sensitized solar cell

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Abstract

The G0 and G1 polyurethane dendrimers terminated with 3–12 atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) initiators were prepared using single and dual functional ATRP reagents and their structures were confirmed using FT-IR, 1H–NMR, HR-MS and SEC-MALLS techniques. 4-Vinylpyridine was polymerized using the G1 dendritic initiators to obtain six- and twelve-arm star poly(4-vinylpyridine)s (STAR-P1 and STAR-P2). The absolute molecular weight and PDI of star polymers were in the order of 105 and 1.23–1.24 respectively. Hydrolysis leading to degradation of inner polyurethane core of the star polymers yielded more narrow dispersed poly(4-vinylpyridine) chains and the SEC-MALLS data of these chains confirm the accurate control on number of arms. Both of the polymers were doped with KI/I2 along with N3-dye to work as efficient polymer electrolytes for dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC). The increment in the conductivity of doped STAR-P1 was very significant and reached 2.415 mS/m from 0.0066 mS/m of dopant salt. The current-voltage characteristics of these doped polymer electrolytes measured under simulated sun light with AM 1.5 at 40 mW/cm2 yielded energy conversion efficiency (η) of 5.13% and 1.90% for STAR-P1 and STAR-P2 respectively and these values also significantly high compared to 1.09% corresponds to current-voltage curve of the device fabricated without the polymers.

Star poly(4-vinylpyridine)s were prepared using novel dendritic ATRP initiators and used as electrolytes for dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC); one of the cells showed 5.13% energy conversion efficiency.

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Acknowledgements

The authors (S.S and A.S.N) gratefully acknowledge CSIR, India, for financial support under a Scheme No. 02(0100)/12/EMR-II. Dt. 31-10-2012. One of the authors (A.G) thanks to CSIR, India, for awarding Junior Research Fellowship.

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  1. Department of Polymer Science, University of Madras, Guindy Campus, Chennai, 25, India

    A. Gopinath, S. Sathiyaraj & A. Sultan Nasar

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  1. A. Gopinath
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Correspondence to A. Sultan Nasar.

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Gopinath, A., Sathiyaraj, S. & Sultan Nasar, A. Star poly(4-vinylpyridine)s using dendritic ATRP initiators: Synthesis, electrolyte property and performance in dye sensitized solar cell. J Polym Res 24, 116 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-017-1274-8

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