Liquid Crystals Embedded in Polymeric Electrolytes for Quasi‐Solid State Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cell Applications

Abstract

A new series of liquid crystal embedded in polymeric electrolytes was developed for obtaining high efficiency in quasi‐solid state dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The polymeric electrolytes were composed of iodide and tri‐iodide redox species in polyacrylonitrile (PAN) as a polymer matrix and liquid crystals (E7 or ML‐0249) for increasing the order parameter of electrolyte components with easy transport of redox species. The highest efficiency (6.21 and 6.29% at 1 sun) was obtained for the quasi‐solid state DSSCs using E7 to PAN and ML‐0249 to PAN, respectively, under AM 1.5 G illumination and an aperture mask condition. The high efficiencies of the quasi‐solid state DSSCs are due to the effective formation of pathways through liquid crystal orientation for the transport of redox species.magnified image

Liquid crystal-doped liquid electrolytes for dye-sensitized solar cell applications

“…As shown in Table 2, the doped LCs increases R ct and consequently decreases J SC and PCE of the DSSCs. However, these results are inconsistent with those in the literature [22,23], which claim that the addition of LCs generally increases the PCE of the polymer electrolyte-based DSSCs because the doped LCs increase the additional conductive pathways of the polymer electrolyte [23,35]. The main reason is that the massive LC dopant change the order parameter of the polymer electrolyte.…”

Polymer electrolyte liquid crystal system for improved optical and electrical properties

“…developed liquid crystal embedded in polymeric electrolytes were developed for obtaining high efficiency quasi-solid state dye-sensitized solar cells and its performed similarly to liquid electrolyte. The high ionic conductivity of the LC embedded in polymeric electrolyte leads to enhancement in photovoltaic performance [25,26]. Ahn et al developed a polymer electrolyte consisting of poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (e-PVdF-co-HFP) gel doped with the LC E7 which resulted in an increase of its PCE in dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) application [27].…”

Liquid crystal based electrolyte with light trapping scheme for enhancing photovoltaic performance of quasi-solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells

“…In recent days, a few studies have shown that the introduction of liquid crystal into the electrolyte for the DSC would enhance the ion conductivity and thus the photovoltaic performance of the DSC [17,18]. Kim et al [19,20] has successfully introduced the liquid crystals E7 and ML-0249 into the polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based polymer electrolyte to improve the ion conductivity and therefore the short-circuit current density of the DSC. However, reports about the application of LC in DSC are still limited.…”