Hematite Fe₂O₃ Nanoparticles Incorporated Polyvinyl Alcohol Based Polymer Electrolytes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Influence of hematite iron oxide nanoparticles (α-Fe 2 O 3 NPs) on ionic conductivity of polyvinyl alcohol/KI/I 2 (PVA/KI/I 2 ) polymer electrolytes was investigated in this work. The pure and different weight percentage (wt %) ratios (2, 3, 4 and 5 % with respect to PVA) of α-Fe 2 O 3 NPs incorporated PVA/KI/I 2 polymer electrolyte films were prepared by solution casting method using DMSO as solvent. The prepared polymer electrolyte films were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and alternating current (AC)-impedance analysis. The AC-impedance studies revealed a significant increase in the ionic conductivity of α-Fe 2 O 3 NPs incorporated PVA/KI/I 2 polymer electrolytes than compared to pure PVA/KI/I 2 . This incorporated polymer electrolytes reduces the crystallinity of the polymer and enhance the mobility of I - /I 3 - redox couple, thereby increasing the ionic conductivity of polymer electrolytes. The highest ionic conductivity of 1.167 × 10 -4 Scm -1 was observed for 4 wt % of α-Fe 2 O 3 NPs incorporated PVA/KI/I 2 polymer electrolyte. Also, the dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) fabricated with this electrolyte showed an enhanced power conversion efficiency of 3.62 % than that of pure PVA/KI/I 2 electrolyte (1.51 %). Thus, the synthesized α-Fe 2 O 3 NPs added polymer electrolyte can be serve as a suitable material for dye sensitized solar cell application studies.