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Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) is blended with methyl gallate (MG) encapsulated with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and then mixed with a liquid electrolyte to prepare a polymer gel electrolyte. The structural and physical properties of prepared polymer gels are analyzed by various analytical instruments. The MG‐PEG‐HPMC hybrid is found to be able for entrapping a large amount of liquid electrolyte and is used to fabricate dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). This polymer gel electrolyte shows high ionic conductivity (5.43 × 10−4 S cm−1) and good triiodide diffusion coefficient (2.25 × 10−6 cm2 s−1). The resulting DSSCs show an efficiency of 6.96% at a light intensity of 85 mW cm−2. The long‐term stability test reveals that the fabricated DSSCs will be stable even after 500 h. The benefits of incorporating a gel electrolyte into DSSCs are highlighted along with factors affecting the stability of these devices. The use of these bio‐based materials has the potential to make a significant contribution to the widespread exploitation of stable, efficient, and low‐cost dye‐sensitive solar cells.

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Substantially to increase the efficiency of dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), it has been fabricated with the polymer gel electrolytes (PGEs) by replacing the liquid electrolytes (LEs). Poly (ε‐caprolactone) (PCL) has been synthesized as a crystalline solid biopolymer of about 74% yield using different 6‐membered ring phenolate Al complexes. As prepared PCL was blended with LE used in dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) to prepare high polydispersity index (PDI) PGE. The prepared PGE shows cross‐linking between carboxyl and hydroxyl groups and interacts with iodide ions to form a chelate complex structure. The PGE was well‐characterized using various analytical tools to demonstrate its structural and surface morphology. The fabricated DSSCs using PGE showed high ionic conductivity (7.76 × 10−4 S cm−1), good tri‐iodide diffusion (2.052 × 10−6 Cm2 S−1), and a highly stable incident photon‐to‐current conversion efficiency (PCE; 5.92%) under solar light illumination (85 mW cm−2). Besides found PGE has improved long‐term stability up to 15 days, and these results proved that the prepared PGE is superior compared to other reported PGEs.

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Summary The exorbitant cost, corrosive nature and rare abundance of Pt as counter electrodes has hampered the availability of dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Perovskites, the complex metal oxides that have a diverse variety of oxidation states and high oxygen vacancy concentrations, have sparked a lot of interest in energy storage and conversion, with researchers focusing on alternative ideas for rate‐cut counter electrodes to magnify the cost‐cutting of DSSCs. Herein, instead of Pt, the three hydrothermally synthesized perovskites LaCeNiO3, LaNiO3, and CeNiO3 are employed as photocathodes for the fabrication of DSSCs. The electrochemical studies reveal that their electrocatalytic activity towards the iodine/iodide electrolyte is akin to a typical Pt photocathode. The electrons released by the perovskites by oxygen reduction reaction on its surface reduce the I3− to I−, thus the regeneration of the dye to its ground state happens by collecting electrons from the I− ion redox mediator, and finally oxidation of I− to I3− takes place. The LaCeNiO3 shows a higher short circuit current (13.75 mA cm−2) with a power conversion efficiency of 3.46%. It has 579 mV of open‐circuit voltage with a 0.37 fill factor value. The LaNiO3 shows lower values in comparison with LaCeNiO3 because the A‐site cation doping creates lattice deficiencies in LaCeNiO3 making it good for the iodine reduction reaction.