Speaker
Description
Quasi-solid-state polymer electrolytes (QSSPEs) have attracted considerable interest for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) because they can provide improved electrolyte stability while maintaining ionic transport. In this study, the effect of propylene carbonate (PC) and 1,2-dimethoxyethane (DME) solvent composition on PVdF-TrFE-based QSSPEs was investigated. The PC:DME volume ratio was systematically varied from 100:0 to 0:100 while maintaining the PVdF-TrFE content and MPII–NaI binary salt composition at 0.20 g and 0.6 M MPII–0.4 M NaI, respectively. The prepared electrolytes were characterized in terms of ionic conductivity, structural characteristics, electrochemical impedance and photovoltaic performance. Among the investigated compositions, the 75:25 PC:DME formulation exhibited the highest ionic conductivity of 6.90 ± 0.09 mS cm⁻¹ and the lowest charge-transfer resistance of 24.6 Ω. The corresponding DSSC achieved an open-circuit voltage of 0.55 V, short-circuit current density of 13.94 mA cm⁻², fill factor of 0.56 and power conversion efficiency of 4.29%. Increasing the DME fraction beyond 25% resulted in a gradual decrease in ionic conductivity and photovoltaic performance. These results demonstrate that the PC:DME solvent composition plays an important role in regulating ionic transport, interfacial charge-transfer behaviour and photovoltaic performance of PVdF-TrFE-based QSSPEs.
