Poly(ethylene oxide)/poly(dimethylsiloxane) blend solid polymer electrolyte and its dye-sensitized solar cell applications

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) with high efficiency have been fabricated using poly(ethylene oxide)/poly(dimethylsiloxane) blend polymer electrolyte with I-/I-3(-) redox couple in conjunction with a fabricated nanoporous TiO2 electrode. The blend complexed with LiI has been found to show conductivity close to 10(-3) S cm(-1) at 303 K for [EO]: [Li+] = 20: 1. Detailed studies have been reported on the structural and electrical characterization of the polymer electrolyte. The crystallinity modification and the relative number of charge carriers and hence the conductivity have been shown to vary with the PDMS content and also with increasing temperature. The electrolyte dissociation theory has been employed to explain the conductivity behavior. The DSSC with the highest conducting composition of the blend and nanoporous TiO2 electrode showed 1.35% efficiency at 10 mW cm(-2).