Polypyrrole/poly(vinyl alcohol-co-ethylene) quasi-solid gel electrolyte for iodine-free dye-sensitized solar cells

Conducting polymer gel electrolyte is synthesized using the Cl- doped polypyrrole (PPy)/1-buty-2,3-dimethylimidazolium iodide (BDI)/poly(vinyl alcohol-co-ethylene)(PVA-EL), which yield an overall energy-conversion efficiency of about 4.72% comparable to the liquid electrolyte 4.69% under irradiation at 100 mW cm(-2) AM 1.5. The introduction of PPy and PVA-EL into the BDI (which dissolves in the dimethylsulfoxide) increases the ion conductivity and effectively decreases the charge transfer resistance in the PPy gel electrolyte/TiO2/dye interfaces. With the change of the PVA-EL composition, PPy gel electrolyte exhibits independence of the content of PVA-EL, which means ion conductivity of PPy gel electrolyte as a dominant role for the contribution of cell performance. Employing intensity-modulated photo-voltage spectroscopy, intensity-modulated photo-current spectroscopy, and charge-extraction measurement, it demonstrate that the effective charge collection in PPy gel electrolyte devices rather than liquid electrolyte one is occurred due to the larger diffusion coefficient and long electron lifetime, resulting in the higher-efficiency solar cell. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.