In this work 2,2´-bipyridine (bipy) is introduced as a new nitrogen containing electrolyte additive in Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) as an alternative to the commonly used 4-tertbutylpyridine (TBP). Bipy was shown to substitute the thiocyanate ligands in the N719 ruthenium dye ~4 times slower than TBP at elevated temperatures 80-85 ºC and therefore reduce the thermal degradation of N719 relative to TBP. The thermal stability experiments were performed in sealed glass ampules filled with a colloidal solution of N719 dyed TiO2 nano-particles in an ionic liquid electrolyte with either TBP or bipy as N-additive. The glass ampules were opened after various time intervals between 0-2000 hours of heating at either 80 or 85 ºC and the N719 and its degradation products were extracted from the TiO2 nano particles and analyzed by LC-UV/Vis-MS. After 1000 hours at 85 ºC in dark, 85 % of N719 was intact in an electrolyte containing 0.2 M bipy whereas the same number was 67% for TBP. DSCs prepared with bipy in the electrolyte was shown to perform equally well as 2 DSCs with TBP containing electrolytes with light to electricity performance of 4.5% for both N-additives. 2,2´-bipyridine may therefore be used as an alternative to TBP as N-additive in DSCs.
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