Quasi-Solid State Dye Sensitized Solar Cell Based on Poly (Acrylonitrile-co-Methacrylonitrile)-Silica Gel Electrolyte

The solid state dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are shown low conversion efficiencies as compare to liquid based DSSCs due to incomplete wetting of photoelectrode by solid electrolyte and poor contact of the solid state materials with the surface of dye coated TiO
₂
surface. In current work, poly (acrylonitrile-co-methacrylonitrile)/silica based gel electrolytes have been successfully employed to fabricate quasi-solid state DSSC with the overall energy conversion efficiency of 3.0%, open-circuit voltage of 0.784 V and short circuit current of 7.33 mA/cm
²
at 1 sun irradiance (100 mW/cm
²
). The introduction of silica filler into the copolymer [poly(acrylonitrile-co-methacrylonitrile)] matrix reduces the crystallinity of the copolymer, which increases the mobility of iodide/triiodide couple. The optimized experimental conditions such as gelation time, composition of SiO
₂
nanoparticles and thickness of TiO
₂
have been discussed in detail at this work