Currently, printing process has been widely utilized in the industrial mass production. Developing a printable electrolyte is undoubtedly beneficial to the large-scale production of modular solar cells. In this study, printable electrolytes containing I-/I3- redox couples are developed for dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) applications. 3-methoxypropionitrile (MPN) is employed as a solvent with low volatility in order to reduce the electrolyte evaporation during the fabrication of solar cells. Two kinds of polymers, poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO) and poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), are added simultaneously into electrolytes to regulate the viscosity achieving the requirement of printing. Printable electrolyte can be prepared using PEO only, but the resultant ionic conductivity is quite low causing a decrease in the photocurrent of DSSC. Hence, the utilization of PMMA not only can adjust the viscosity of electrolytes, but also can control the ionic conductivity comparable to that of the liquid electrolyte. The experimental results show that the optimal PEO/PMMA ratio and the overall polymer amount in a electrolyte are 7:3 and 9 wt%, respectively; the DSSC using this printable electrolyte can achieve a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.50% under standard 1 sun irradiation (100 mWcm-2). When 10wt% TiO2 nanoparticle is introduced to the printable electrolyte, the PCE can further increase to 9.12%, which is higher than that of the device using a liquid electrolyte. In addition, the DSSC employing printable electrolyte displays a stable photovoltaic performance during the aging test at 60 °C for 500 hours.

Development of printable electrolyte using poly(ethylene oxide) and poly(methyl methacrylate) for dye-sensitized solar cells

254th National Meeting (2017)

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