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Sodium carboxymethyl starch-based highly conductive gel electrolyte for quasi-solid-state quantum dot-sensitized solar cells

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Abstract

Liquid-junction quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSCs) have been facing a long stability issue due to the volatilization and leakage of liquid electrolytes. Solidification of liquid electrolytes was expected to solve the main challenge for the application of QDSCs. Herein, a novel gel electrolyte was developed by solidifying conventional polysulfide aqueous solution with CMS-Na (Sodium Carboxymethyl Starch) as gelator. Due to its superior water absorbing and holding capacity as well as dimensional porous networks, the obtained CMS-Na gel electrolyte exhibits high conductivity and beneficial ion transport. Meanwhile, CMS-Na gel electrolyte could form a passivation layer coated on the surface of QDs/TiO2 via its strong coordination of carboxylate groups on CMS-Na polymer chains with metal ions, sequentially suppressing the charge recombination between photoanode and electrolyte. As expected, the constructed quasi-solid-state QDSCs exhibited a photoelectric conversion efficiency of 6.32%, which is comparable to that of liquid-junction QDSCs. Notably, light-soaking stability of the resultant QDSCs is significantly improved.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21771063) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in China for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Functional Materials Chemistry, Institute of Applied Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, China

    Xiaoyan Wang, Wenliang Feng, Wenran Wang, Wei Wang, Lianjing Zhao & Yan Li

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  1. Xiaoyan Wang
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  2. Wenliang Feng
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  3. Wenran Wang
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  4. Wei Wang
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  5. Lianjing Zhao
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  6. Yan Li
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Correspondence to Yan Li.

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Wang, X., Feng, W., Wang, W. et al. Sodium carboxymethyl starch-based highly conductive gel electrolyte for quasi-solid-state quantum dot-sensitized solar cells. Res Chem Intermed 44, 1161–1172 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11164-017-3159-1

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