Novel Rice Starch based aqueous gel electrolyte for Dye Sensitized Solar Cell Application

There is increasing demand for finding alternative for organic electrolyte which is being used in Dye Sensitised Solar Cells (DSSC's). Therefore, it is necessary to replace toxic organic electrolyte with environmental friendly solvents for practical application of DSSC's. Here we report a novel Rice starch based biopolymer gel electrolyte using Lithium iodide salt with 100% water as solvent. The prepared gel-state electrolyte was showing good penetration into the mesoporous TiO2 photoanode. The effects of rice starch on the Photovoltaic properties were examined. It was noticed that there is greater increase of Open circuit voltage (Voc) and Efficiency (eta) for gel electrolyte compared to liquid electrolyte. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.