Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Arof, A.K.
• Aziz, M.F.
• Noor, M.M.
• Careem, M.A.
• Bandara, L.R.A.K.
• Thotawatthage, C.A.
• Rupasinghe, W.N.S.
• Dissanayake, M.A.K.L.

Titel

Efficiency enhancement by mixed cation effect in dye-sensitized solar cells with a PVdF based gel polymer electrolyte

Ist Teil von

• International journal of hydrogen energy, 2014-02, Vol.39 (6), p.2929-2935

Ort / Verlag

Kidlington: Elsevier Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2014

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This paper reports the effect of using a mixed iodide salt system with two dissimilar cations to enhance the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells made with polyvinylidenefluoride (PVdF) based gel electrolyte. Instead of a single iodide salt, a mixture of potassium iodide (KI) with a small K+ cation and tetrapropylammonium iodide (Pr4NI) with a bulky Pr4N+ cation were used to provide the required iodide ion conductivity. Solar cells of configuration FTO/TiO2/Dye/electrolyte/Pt/FTO were fabricated using a mesoporous TiO2 electrode sensitized with a Ruthenium dye (N719). With identical electrolyte compositions, the cells with KI and Pr4NI alone gave efficiencies of 2.37% and 2.90% respectively. The cell with the mixed iodide system, KI:Pr4NI = 16.6:83.4 (% weight ratio), however, showed an enhanced efficiency of 3.92% with a short circuit current density of 9.16 mA cm−2, open circuit voltage of 674.4 mV and a fill factor of 63.4%. •Efficiency enhancement in a dye-sensitized solar cell with mixed cations is reported.•KI and Pr4NI provided the small and large mixed cations in the PVdF electrolyte used.•16.6 KI: 83.4 Pr4NI (wt.%) mixture produced maximum Jsc and 3.92% efficiency.•K+ and Pr4N+ mixed cations produced 35% maximum efficiency enhancement.