The Effect of Plasticizers on the Polypyrrole-Poly(vinyl alcohol)-Based Conducting Polymer Electrolyte and Its Application in Semi-Transparent Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

K M Manikandan; Arunagiri Yelilarasi; S S Saravanakumar; Raed H Althomali; Anish Khan; Khamael M Abualnaja; Dalal Alhashmialameer; M A Hussein

doi:10.3390/membranes11100791

The Effect of Plasticizers on the Polypyrrole-Poly(vinyl alcohol)-Based Conducting Polymer Electrolyte and Its Application in Semi-Transparent Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Membranes (Basel). 2021 Oct 18;11(10):791. doi: 10.3390/membranes11100791.

Authors

K M Manikandan¹, Arunagiri Yelilarasi¹, S S Saravanakumar², Raed H Althomali³, Anish Khan⁴, Khamael M Abualnaja⁵, Dalal Alhashmialameer⁵, M A Hussein^{3

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, Kamaraj College of Engineering and Technology, K.Vellakulam, Virudhunagar, Madurai P.O. Box 625 701, Tamil Nadu, India.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kamaraj College of Engineering and Technology, K.Vellakulam, Virudhunagar, Madurai P.O. Box 625 701, Tamil Nadu, India.
³ Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80203, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials Research, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80203, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Taif University, P.O. Box 11099, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Assiut University, Assiut 71516, Egypt.

Abstract

In this work, the quasi-solid-state polymer electrolyte containing poly(vinyl alcohol)-polypyrrole as a polymer host, potassium iodide (KI), iodine (I₂), and different plasticizers (EC, PC, GBL, and DBP) was successfully prepared via the solution casting technique. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to analyze the interaction between the polymer and the plasticizer. X-ray diffraction confirmed the reduction of crystallinity in the polymer electrolyte by plasticizer doping. The ethylene carbonate-based polymer electrolyte showed maximum electrical conductivity of 0.496 S cm^-1. The lowest activation energy of 0.863 kJ mol^-1 was obtained for the EC-doped polymer electrolyte. The lowest charge transfer resistance R_ct1 was due to a faster charge transfer at the counter electrode/electrolyte interface. The polymer electrolyte containing the EC plasticizer exhibited an average roughness of 23.918 nm. A photo-conversion efficiency of 4.19% was recorded in the DSSC with the EC-doped polymer electrolyte under the illumination of 100 mWcm^-2.

Keywords: conducting polymer electrolyte; crystallinity; dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC); plasticizer; polypyrrole.

Grants and funding

TURSP-2020/267/University Researchers Supporting Project , Taif University