Development of pma/pvac-tpai-bmii solid polymer electrolytes for application in dye sensitized solar cell

¹ Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
² Institute of Science, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

Abstract

Electrolyte film of poly(methyl acrylate) (PMA) and poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc) with composition of 90:10 and 20 wt.% of tetrapropyl ammonium iodide (TPAI) at different of 1-butyl-3- methyl imidazoliumiodide (BMII) concentration were prepared by solution casting technique. Highest conductivities achieve at 5wt.% of BMII is 1.2 x 10^-11 S cm^-1. Effects of temperature of this sample on the dielectric properties was studied by impedance spectroscopy. The dielectric constant, εr and dielectric loss, εi increased with increasing temperature. Charge carrier relaxation time was extracted from the electrical modulus spectra. It was found that the relaxation time decreased with temperature. The ac conductivity was observed to obey the Jonscher’s Universal Power Law. The correlated barrier hopping model (CBH) was used to interpret the conduction mechanism of the present electrolyte system. Electrolyte films were sandwiched between titanium dioxide photoanode and platinum counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) assembly. The solar cell with 5wt.% showed highest efficiency of 4.62% with maximum short circuit current density(J_sc) of 10.04 mAcm^-2, open circuit voltage (V_oc) 0.70 V and fill factor, ff of 66.04%.