Efficient quasi-solid dye sensitized solar cells employing molten salt electrolyte

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} There have been many attempts to increase the overall conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells using liquid-state electrolytes. However, this type of cells have unsolved critical problems such as leakage and evaporation of volatile organic solvents. Thus the development of more stable solid or quasi-solid state cell is of great importance. In the study reported here, we developed a novel fabrication method of dye sensitized quasi-solid solar cells using solid composite materials of LiSCN and methyl-hexyl-imidazolium iodide (MHImI) as hole transport materials to replace liquid iodide and polyiodide electrolyte which consists of volatile solvents. The device based on 6 ìm thick nanocrystalline TiO2 film absorbed by monolayer of Ru(II) terpyridyl complex photosensitizer (N719 dye), shows excellent incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency (IPCE, ~ 75%) , large current density (11.6 mA cm-2), and high light-to-electric energy conversion efficiency (5.3- 6.1%) under the illumination of 100 mW cm-2 (AM 1.5). doi:10.4038/sljp.v7i0.204 Sri Lankan Journal of Physics, Vol. 7 (2006) 15-22