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      https://www.ias.ac.in/article/fulltext/boms/046/0080

    • Keywords

       

      Electrospinning; nanofibre gel polymer electrolyte; dye-sensitized solar cells; PVdF-HFP co-polymer.

    • Abstract

       

      Poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVdF-HFP) electrospun polymer nanofibre-based quasisolid or gel electrolytes were successfully fabricated by incorporating a liquid electrolyte within the nanofibre membrane. The dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) fabricated with gel and with liquid electrolyte were characterized by photocurrent– voltage measurements and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements. The maximum efficiency (${\eta}$) of 6.79% was observed for the DSSC fabricated with optimized nanofibre membrane thickness, corresponding to 4 min of electrospinning time. The optimized PVdF-HFP nanofibre gel electrolyte shows an ionic conductivity of 7.16 ${\times}$ 10$^{-3}$ S cm$^{–1}$ at 25°C, while the corresponding liquid electrolyte exhibits an ionic conductivity of 11.69 ${\times}$ 10$^{–3}$ S cm$^{–1}$ at the same temperature. The open circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$), short circuit current density ($J_{sc}$) and fill factor were recorded as 801.40 mV, 12.70 mA cm$^{–2}$, and 66.67%, respectively, at an incident light intensity of 100 mW cm$^{–2}$ with a 1.5 AM filter. The nanofibre gel electrolyte-based cell showed an efficiency of 6.79%, whereas the efficiency of the conventional liquid electrolyte-based cell was 7.28% under the same conditions. Furthermore, nanofibre gel electrolyte-based cells exhibited better stability, maintaining 85.40% of initial efficiency after 120 h. These results show that the optimized, polymer nanofibre-based gel electrolyte can be used successfully to replace the liquid electrolyte in DSSCs without much loss of efficiency but improving the stability while minimizing most of the drawbacks associated with liquid electrolytes.

    • Author Affiliations

       

      M A K L DISSANAYAKE1 2 M S H HETTIARACHCHI1 2 G K R SENADEERA1 3 J M K W KUMARI1 2 K UMAIR1 2 T M W J BANDARA2 4 I ALBINSSON5 M FURLANI6 B-E MELLANDER6 N B CHAURE7 O I OLUSOLA8

      1. National Institute of Fundamental Studies, Kandy 20000, Sri Lanka
      2. Postgraduate Institute of Science, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya 20400, Sri Lanka
      3. Department of Physics, The Open University of Sri Lanka, Nawala, Nugegoda 10250, Sri Lanka
      4. Department of Physics, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya 20400, Sri Lanka
      5. Department of Physics, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg 41296, Sweden
      6. Department of Applied Physics, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg 41296, Sweden
      7. Department of Physics, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune 411007, India
      8. Department of Physics, The Federal University of Technology Akure, Akure 340271, Nigeria
    • Dates

       
  • Bulletin of Materials Science | News

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