Performance enhancement for water based dye-sensitized solar cells via addition of ionic surfactants

Liquid electrolyte DSSCs using 100% water as the solvent and I-/I-3(-) as the redox couple were fabricated. The effect of ionic surfactants on water based DSSCs was investigated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and contact angle measurements. Addition of surfactant to the aqueous electrolyte improved the interfacial contact between the aqueous electrolyte and the TiO2 films while decreased the interface recombination resistance. With the addition of 0.2 wt% of N,N,N-trimethyl-3-(perfluorooctylsulfonamido)propan-1-aminium iodide (FC-134) in the aqueous electrolyte, average overall power conversion efficiencies of 3.96% and 4.66% were obtained under the simulated air mass 1.5 solar spectrum illumination at 100 mW cm(-2) and 50 mW cm(-2), respectively. These results show a feasible scheme towards the fabrication of greener and more efficient aqueous DSSCs.