In order to overcome the problems associated with the use of liquid electrolytes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), a new system composed of liquid crystal embedded, polymer electrolytes has been developed. For this purpose, three types of DSSCs have been fabricated. The cells contain electrospun poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (e-PVdF-co-HFP) polymer gel electrolyte, with and without doping with the liquid crystal E7 and with a liquid electrolyte. The morphologies of the newly prepared DSSCs were explored using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). Analysis of the FE-SEM images indicate that the DSSC composed of E7 embedded on e-PVdF-co-HFP polymer gel electrolyte has a greatly regular morphology with an average diameter. The ionic conductivity of E7 embedded on e-PVdF-co-HFP polymer gel electrolyte was found to be 2.9 × 10(-3) S/cm at room temperature, a value that is 37% higher than that of e-PVdF-co-HFP polymer gel electrolyte. The DCCS containing the E7 embedded, e-PVdF-co-HFP polymer gel electrolyte was observed to possess a much higher power conversion efficiency (PCE = 6.82%) than that of an e-PVdF-co-HFP nanofiber (6.35%). In addition, DSSCs parameters of the E7 embedded, e-PVdF-co-HFP polymer gel electrolyte (V(oc) = 0.72 V, J(sc) = 14.62 mA/cm(2), FF = 64.8%, and PCE = 6.82% at 1 sun intensity) are comparable to those of a liquid electrolyte (V(oc) = 0.75 V, J(sc) = 14.71 mA/cm(2), FF = 64.9%, and PCE = 7.17%, both at a 1 sun intensity).
Two new low-bandgap copolymers containing 1-(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)-2,5-di(2-thienyl)pyrrole, 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole and indenofluorene or fluorene (PTPTIFB and PTPTFB, respectively) were synthesized and characterized. The absorption spectrum of the polymer PTPTIFB covers the region from 300 to 750 nm, whereas polymer PTPTFB shows the absorption band up to 975 nm. The electrochemical bandgaps of the polymers were calculated to be 1.67 and 1.57 eV, respectively. The bulk heterojunction solar cells were fabricated with the configuration of ITO/PEDOT:PSS/PTPTIFB or PTPTFB:PC 70 BM (1:3 or 1:4 or 1:5 wt%)/ TiO x /Al, and the best performance was obtained with the blend of polymer:PC 70 BM (1:5 wt%) as an active layer. The device made from PTPTIFB showed the highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 1.18 %, while the device made from PTPTFB showed the PCE of 0.90 % measured using AM 1.5 G solar simulator at 100 mW cm -2 light illumination.
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