Preparation and characterization of nanocomposite gel electrolytes from PVDF-HFP/PVA and PVDF-HEP/PAN polymer blend for dye-sensitized solar cell

In this work, we aimed to study the preparation of polymer gel electrolytes of PVDF-HFP/PVA and PVDF-HFP/PAN blends at concentration of 10 wt% and 12.5 wt%, respectively. With various ratios: 1:9, 2:8, 4:6, 5:5, 6:4, 8:2 and 9:1. In addition, the influence of addition of TiO2 and SiO2 nanoparticles at concentration of 0.25-10 wt% to form nanocomposite gel electrolytes was also investigated. It was found that the efficiencies (PCE) of the cells using ionic liquid electrolyte and 8:2 (PVDF-HFP/PVA) polymer gel electrolyte were 3.49±0.05% ang 3.26±0.09%, respectively. The efficiencies of cells using nanocomposite gel electrolytes containing 0.25 wt% TiO2 and 0.5 wt% SiO2 nanoparticles were found to be 2.71±0.10% and 3.03±0.09%, respectively under 6+2 layer of working electrode (WE). For the PVDF-HFP/PAN system, the PCE of the cells using liquid electrolyte were 4.34±0.15%. The 2:8 (PVDF-HEP/PAN) polymer gel electrolyte system highest PCE was found to be 5.06±0.33%. The performance of DSSCs using nanocomposite gel electrolytes containing 5.0 wt% TiO2 and 5.0 wt% SiO2 nanoparticles were found to be 4.02±0.27% and 3.87±0.73%, respectively under 4+3 layer of WE. For long-term stability of solar cells, the cells was long lasting over 1000 hours. Furthermore, the electrical resistances of electrolytes were investigated by EIS. The functional groups of polymer gel electrolytes were investigated by FT-IR and the thermal properties of polymer gel electrolytes were analyzed by DSC and TGA.