Fabrication of Solid-State Dye-Sensitized TiO2 Solar Cell Using Polymer Electrolyte

A solid-state dye-sensitized TiO2 solar cell has been fabricated with a polymer electrolyte constructed with α-methacryloyl-ω-methoxyocta(oxyethylene) or 2-(2-methoxyethoxy)ethyl acrylate as a base polymer, α-acryloyl-ω-acryloyloxyocta(oxyethylene)octa(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate as a cross-linking agent and 3-methoxypropiononitrile as a plasticizer. The polymer is in-situ polymerized at the porous TiO2 film by photo-irradiation and the resulting film is immersed into the liquid electrolyte in order to introduce the electrolyte to the polymer phase. The conductivity of the polymer electrolyte reached 2.67 mS cm-1. The energy conversion efficiency of the solid-state cell was 2.62% under irradiation of simulated sunlight (AM 1.5, 1 kW m-2), achieving 86.4% of the cell efficiency using the liquid electrolyte.