Characteristics of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Assembled from Modified Chitosan-Based Gel Polymer Electrolytes Incorporated with Potassium Iodide

Abstract

In the present work, phthaloyl chitosan (PhCh)-based gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs) were prepared using dimethylformamide (DMF) as a solvent, ethyl carbonate (EC) as a co-solvent, and a set of five quaternaries of potassium iodide (KI) as a doping salt, which is a mixed composition of iodine (I2). The prepared GPEs were applied to dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) to observe the effectiveness of the electrolyte, using mesoporous TiO2, which was sensitized with N3 dye as the sensitizer. The incorporation of the potassium iodide-based redox couple in a polymer electrolyte is fabricated for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The number of compositions was based on the chemical equation, which is 1:1 for KI:I2. The electrical performance of prepared GPE systems have been assessed using electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and dielectric permittivity. The improvement in the ionic conductivity of PhCh-based GPE was observed with the rise of salt concentration, and the maximum ionic conductivity (4.94 × 10−2 S cm−1) was achieved for the 0.0012 mol of KI:I2. The study of dielectric permittivity displays that ions with a high dielectric constant are associated with a high concentration of added ions. Furthermore, the gel polymer electrolyte samples were applied to DSSCs to detect the conversion effectiveness of the electrolytes. For electrolytes containing various content of KI:I2 the highest conversion efficiency (η%) of DSSC obtained was 3.57% with a short circuit current density (Jsc) of 20.33 mA cm−2, open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.37 V, fill factor (FF) of 0.47, as well as a conductivity of 2.08 × 10−2 S cm−1.

A Polymer Blend Electrolyte Based on CS with Enhanced Ion Transport and Electrochemical Properties for Electrical Double Layer Capacitor Applications

“…The absence of the high-frequency semicircular region indicates that the ions are primarily responsible for the conduction [ 31 , 32 , 33 ]. However, the presence of the spike at the low-frequency region results from the electric double-layer capacitance at the blocking electrodes [ 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 ]. As obviously seen in Figure 3 A–C, the absence of the semicircles at the high-frequency region is owed to the use of the plasticizer [ 38 ].…”

Investigation of Ion Transport Parameters and Electrochemical Performance of Plasticized Biocompatible Chitosan-Based Proton Conducting Polymer Composite Electrolytes

“…Chitosan (CS) has received a great deal of attention by means of a natural polymer due to its noteworthy advantages, including biodegradability, biocompatibility, safety, electrolytic characteristics, and high chemical resistance [ 6 ]. Also, CS backbone structure possesses multifunctional properties (i.e., OH and NH 2 ), and the protonated amino group makes it capable of forming a high conductivity of the polymer electrolyte system [ 7 ]. The amine group (NH 2 ) in the structure can act as an electron donor to interact with the inorganic salts.…”

Influence of Fluorine Substitution on the Optical, Thermal, Electrochemical and Structural Properties of Carbazole-Benzothiadiazole Dicarboxylic Imide Alternate Copolymers

“…Due to a significant increase in energy demand, as well as the growing concern regarding the adverse impacts of using fossil energy resources, the necessity for a sustainable and renewable alternate source of energy has gained importance in recent years [1][2][3][4][5]. Photovoltaic technologies, which can directly harvest energy from sunlight, can be considered as a promising solution to address the growing global energy demand [6,7].…”

“…Zhang et al reported on poly(2-(5-(5,6-bis(octyloxy)-4-(thiophen-2-yl)benzo[c] [1,2,5]thiadiazol-7yl)thiophen-2-yl)-9-octyl-9H-carbazole) (HXS-1) copolymer including 2,7-carbazole and 5,6-dialkoxy-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole [(OR) 2 BT] as an acceptor [32]. HXS-1 blended with PC 71 BM exhibited a PCE of 5.4%.…”

“…HXS-1 blended with PC 71 BM exhibited a PCE of 5.4%. Iraqi et al designed and synthesised three copolymers, poly [9-(heptadecan-9-yl)-9H-carbazole-2,7-diyl-alt-(5,6-bis(octyloxy)-4,7-di(thiophen-2-yl)benzo[c] [1,2,5]thiadiazole)-5,5-diyl] (PCDTBT-8), poly[9-(heptadecan-9-yl)-9H-carbazole-2,7-diyl-alt-(5,6-bis(octyloxy)-4,7-di(2,2 -bithiophen-5-yl)benzo [c] [1,2,5]thiadiazole)-5,5-diyl] (PCDT2BT-8) and PCDTBT based on 2,7-carbazole flanked by thienyl or bithienyl units as donor units and BT or (OR) 2 BT as acceptor moieties. PCDTBT that blended with PC 71 BM delivered the highest PCE of 4.30% [33].…”