Novel anti-freeze and self-adhesive gellan gum/P3HT/LiCl based gel electrolyte for quasi solid dye sensitized solar cells

Abstract

Gellan gum/poly(3-hexylthiophene)/lithium chloride gels with different ratios of LiCl containing I-/I3- liquid electrolyte were synthesized in one-pot reaction and used as gel electrolytes in the dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Due to hygroscopic nature of LiCl, presence of 6 M LiCl was prevented shrinkage of gels by blocking water loss. In addition, by increasing LiCl amount in prepared gels, surface energy values increased that can cause good adhesive property. Furthermore, LiCl contained prepared gels were flexible at about -20 degrees C after being kept at -60 degrees C for 24 h. Anti-freezing and self-adhesive gel electrolytes can extend the usage of DSSCs at different conditions and cell architecture. Finally, with the usage of gel electrolytes, open circuit potentials of prepared DSSCs were increased above 1 V and high solar conversion efficiency was obtained at a 4.64% by using 6 M LiCl. The developed gel electrolyte can be a good alternative for solving the leakage and evaporation problems of liquid electrolytes used in DSSCs.