Flexible, Dye-Sensitized Nanocrystalline Solar Cells Employing Biocatalytically Synthesized Polymeric Electrolytes

A variety of tethered PEGylated polymers were synthesized using a mild, environmentally benign, and highly selective biocatalytic approach for preparing a quasi-solid electrolyte system for dye-sensitized nanocrystalline solar cells (DSSC). The biocatalytic approach developed is based on immobilized Candida antarctica lipase B (Novozyme-435)-catalyzed copolymerization reactions; the polymeric materials thus-obtained were further functionalized with hydrophobic and hydrophilic side chains using mild chemical reactions. All these polymeric materials were used in formulating quasi-solid electrolyte compositions and incorporated into flexible DSSCs, and solar conversion efficiency of as high as 4.6% was obtained.