Improvement of N-phthaloylchitosan based gel polymer electrolyte in dye-sensitized solar cells using a binary salt system

S N F Yusuf; A D Azzahari; V Selvanathan; R Yahya; M A Careem; A K Arof

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2016.10.032

Improvement of N-phthaloylchitosan based gel polymer electrolyte in dye-sensitized solar cells using a binary salt system

Carbohydr Polym. 2017 Feb 10:157:938-944. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2016.10.032. Epub 2016 Oct 13.

Authors

S N F Yusuf¹, A D Azzahari², V Selvanathan³, R Yahya⁴, M A Careem⁵, A K Arof⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia. Electronic address: farhanayusuf@siswa.um.edu.my.
² Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia. Electronic address: o_danny@siswa.um.edu.my.
³ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia. Electronic address: vidhya92@siswa.um.edu.my.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia; Centre for Ionics University Malaya, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Electronic address: rosiyah@um.edu.my.
⁵ Centre for Ionics University Malaya, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Electronic address: macareem@um.edu.my.
⁶ Centre for Ionics University Malaya, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Electronic address: akarof@um.edu.my.

PMID: 27988011
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2016.10.032

Abstract

A binary salt system utilizing lithium iodide (LiI) as the auxiliary component has been introduced to the N-phthaloylchitosan (PhCh) based gel polymer electrolyte consisting of ethylene carbonate (EC), dimethylformamide (DMF), tetrapropylammonium iodide (TPAI), and iodine (I₂) in order to improve the performance of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) with efficiency of 6.36%, photocurrent density, J_SC of 17.29mAcm^-2, open circuit voltage, V_OC of 0.59V and fill factor, FF of 0.62. This efficiency value is an improvement from the 5.00% performance obtained by the DSSC consisting of only TPAI single salt system. The presence of the LiI in addition to the TPAI improves the charge injection rates and increases the iodide contribution to the total conductivity and both factors contribute to the increase in efficiency of the DSSC. The interaction behavior between polymer-plasticizer-salt was thoroughly investigated using EIS, FTIR spectroscopy and XRD.

Keywords: Dye-sensitized solar cell; Electrical impedance spectroscopy; Fourier Transform Infrared; Gel polymer electrolyte; N-Phthaloylchitosan.