Solid gellan gum polymer electrolyte for energy application

In this paper a carbohydrate polymer (Phytagel/gellan gum) based solid gel electrolyte synthesis and its application in dye sensitized solar cell is reported. Potassium iodide has been added in Gelrite/Phytagel biopolymer matrix to develop solid gel electrolyte. Complex impedance spectroscopy shows liquid like ionic conductivity, with maximum conductivity 2.5 x 10(-2) S cm(-1) at 60:40 composition. Infrared spectroscopy (IR) confirms the formation of complex nature while x-ray diffraction (XRD) affirms the composite nature and suppression in crystallinity by salt doping. Polarized microscopy (POM) shows enhancement in amorphousity of gel matrix by salt doping which is a known favourable condition for ionic conductivity enhancement in gel electrolyte system and supported by our XRD data. A dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) has been fabricated using maximum conductivity which shows with J(sc) = 3.2 x 10(-3) mA/cm(2), V-oc = 0.57, FF = 0.90, eta = 1.47 at 1 sun condition. Copyright (C) 2015, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.