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Review on mixed cation effect in gel polymer electrolytes for quasi solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells

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Abstract

This paper reviews the efforts made to enhance the power conversion efficiencies of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) by employing binary and ternary iodides in gel polymer electrolytes. Reported studies about mixed cation effects in quasi-solid-state electrolytes have been investigated using polyacrylonitrile (PAN), polyvinylidene fluoride, polyvinyl alcohol, polyethylene oxide, polymethylmethacrylate, and phthaloylchitosan as host polymers, with PAN being the most commonly employed. Ionic conductivities, their dependence on the composition of iodide salts, and the nature of counterion have been studied by preparing many different sets of gel polymer electrolytes. DSCs that were fabricated and characterized using different gel polymer electrolytes containing binary salt combinations showed efficiency enhancements. The general trend of open-circuit voltage (Voc) is to increase with an increasing radius of counterion, while short-circuit current density (Jsc) tends to be enhanced with reducing the size of the counterion in the cell. This behavior has been confirmed by studying single salt systems based on alkali metal iodides as well as quaternary ammonium iodides. The studies emphasized a significant enhancement of cell performance for binary cationic systems with respect to their single cation counterparts. In conclusion, the efficiency of the DSCs can be improved by employing a mixed cationic system with high and low charge densities.

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Funding

Research support was from the University of Peradeniya Sri Lanka, University Research Grant No. URG/2019/27IS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Postgraduate Institute of Science, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

    G. B. M. M. M. Nishshanke & T. M. W. J. Bandara

  2. Centre for Ionics and Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    A. K. Arof

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  1. G. B. M. M. M. Nishshanke
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  2. A. K. Arof
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  3. T. M. W. J. Bandara
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Correspondence to T. M. W. J. Bandara.

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Nishshanke, G.B.M.M.M., Arof, A.K. & Bandara, T.M.W.J. Review on mixed cation effect in gel polymer electrolytes for quasi solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells. Ionics 26, 3685–3704 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-020-03668-5

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