Influence of Succinonitrile and Potassium Iodide Concentration on Ionic Conductivity and Performance of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Based PMMA-PVA Polymer Blend Electrolyte

摘要

Polymer blend electrolytes based on PMMA (80 %)/PVA (20 %) with distinctive weight ratio of potassium iodide and succinonitrile using dimethyl sulfoxide as solvent have been used to prepare gel electrolytes using solution cast technique. The ionic conductivity values increase with increasing succinonitrile weight ratio up to 5 % beyond which the conductivity values decrease and the highest ambient temperature conductivity has been found to be 3.7 x 10~(-3) S/cm. At high concentration of succinonitrile (more than 5 wt. %) leads to a decrease in the value of the ionic conductivity due to the less number of available charge carriers. The conductivity for each gel polymer electrolyte has increased with increasing temperature range from 298 to 373 K. This is evidently due to the increase in ion mobility and the decrease of viscosity with increasing temperature. Dye-sensitized solar cells with 30 % wt. KI as the only iodide salt shows efficiency 3.75 %, whereas dye-sensitized solar cells utilizing 25 % KI: 5 % succinonitrile weight ratio shows efficiency 4.28 %, under AM 1.5 (1000 W m~(-2)) illumination.