HOPV12 - Blogs

4 th Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaic Conference -Uppsala 2012 298
C153 - Tetrahexylammonium Iodide containing Gel Polymer Electrolytes for Dye Sensitized
Solar Cells and CdS QD Sensitized Solar Cells
Maurizio Furlani a , T.M.W.J. Bandara b , Bengt-Erik Mellander a , Tommy Svensson b , W.J.M.J.S.R.
Jayasundara b , Vito Di Noto d , Christopher Frisk C
a, Chalmers University of Technology, Fysikgränd 3, Göteborg, 41276, SE
b, Department of Physical Sciences, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, , Sri Lanka
c, Department of Physics, University of Gothenburg, SE
d,Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Padova, Via Marzolo 1, I-35131 Padova, IT
Solar cells provide an alternative energy source which can harness energy from freely
available solar radiation in an environmental friendly manner. Dye and quantum-dot sensitized
solar cells are alternatives that need an electrolyte for the efficient operation of the cell. Solid
and gel polymer electrolytes are in many ways more promising than liquid-type electrolytes
due to their many advantages such as geometrical confinement, limited leakage and absence
of evaporation. However, their conductivity needs to be enhanced in order to use them in
practical device applications. For the quantum-dot type cells a broad spectrum of the solar
light may be used by tuning the particles size. The synthesis, sizing and deposition of these
nano sized particles on the anodic side of a photoelectrochemical cells are important issues for
the development of these techniques.
In this work, an iodide conducting gel polymer electrolyte was prepared using
tetrahexylammonium iodide, poly(acrylonitrile), ethylene carbonate and propylene carbonate.
The salt composition was varied to find the optimum conductivity. The sample containing
120% weight salt with respect to poly(acrylonitrile) showed the highest conductivity. This
electrolyte showed a glass transition at -102.3 °C and an ambient temperature conductivity of
2.1×10 -3 S cm −1 at 30 °C.
In a second example a quantum dot CdS sensititized solar cell was prepared and
characterized synthetizing cadmium sulphide nano-particles in suspension using water based
or organic solutions, and depositing the suspension on a substrate by dipping and by staining.
References
[1] Bandara, T.M.W.J.; Svensson, T; Dissanayake, M.A.K.L.; Furlani, M.; Jayasundara,
W.J.M.J.S.R.; Mellander, B.-E.; "Tetrahexyammonium Iodide Containing Solid and Gel Polymer
Electrolytes for Dye Sensitized Solar Cells", Energy Procedia 14, 1607-1612 (2012) (2nd
International Conference on Advances in Energy Engineering ICAEE 2011)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876610211045607
© SEFIN 2012