Enhanced photovoltaic performances of novel all-ionic liquid integrated poly(acrylic acid/polyethylene glycol) gel electrolytes in quasi-solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

In this study, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate is employed as a solvent and 1-methyl-3-propylimidazolium iodide is used as an iodide source to synthesize a full-ionic liquid (IL) electrolyte, which then was successfully integrated into amphiphilic poly(acrylic acid/polyethylene glycol) [poly(AA/PEG)] with a three-dimensional framework. The resultant poly(AA/PEG) gel electrolyte exhibited interconnected porous structures for holding the I⁻/I₃⁻ redox couple and the IL imbibed poly(AA/PEG) gel electrolyte demonstrates improved thermal stability and record room-temperature ionic conductivities of as high as 12.4 mS cm⁻¹ from the full IL imbibed poly(AA/PEG) gel electrolytes. Moreover, a decently high light-to-electric power conversion efficiency of 6.12% is obtained from their dye-sensitized solar cells devices as compared with 5.32% achieved from a conventional acetonitrile-based poly(AA/PEG) gel electrolyte.