A stable gel electrolyte based on poly butyl acrylate (PBA)-co-poly acrylonitrile (PAN) for solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells

[Display omitted] •A gel polymer electrolyte is prepared by PAN-co-PBA copolymer for DSSCs.•PAN-co-PBA gel electrolyte shows the good ionic conductivity of 3.86 mS·cm−1.•A reasonably good conversion efficiency of 5.23% is attained by fabricated DSSCs with PAN-co-PBA gel electrolyte.•PAN-co-PBA exhibits good gelation and proper pore filling properties. This work deals the preparation of a new polymer gel electrolyte using an efficient poly (acrylonitrile)-co-poly (butyl acrylate) (PAN-co-PBA) for solid-state DSSCs. Prepared PAN-co-PBA exhibited the superabsorbent behavior as seen the carboxylate group in copolymer. An excellent gelation with iodide couple and high ionic conductivity of 3.86 mS/cm were recorded for PAN-co-PBA gel electrolyte. Fabricated DSSC with 7% PAN-co-PBA attained the highest overall conversion efficiency of ~5.23% along with high JSC = 13.16 mA/cm2, VOC = 0.646 V and FF = 0.62. Improved DSSC performance might be related to excellent gelation and high ionic conductivity of PAN-co-PBA gel electrolyte, resulting in improving interfacial contact and pore filling.