Ionic Liquid–Sulfolane Composite Electrolytes for High‐Performance and Stable Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells |
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Authors: | Magdalena Marszalek Francine Duriaux Arendse Jean‐David Decoppet Saeed Salem Babkair Azhar Ahmad Ansari Sami S Habib Shaik M Zakeeruddin Michael Grätzel |
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Institution: | 1. Laboratory for Photonics and Interfaces, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland;2. Center of Nanotechnology, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia;3. Center of Nanotechnology, Department of Aeronautical Engineering, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia;4. Center of Nanotechnology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia |
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Abstract: | Ionic liquid electrolytes are prepared using sulfolane as a plasticizer for eutectic melts to realize highly stable and efficiently performing dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSCs) in hot climate conditions. Variations in the viscosity of the formulations with sulfolane content are measured and performance in DSCs is investigated using the ruthenium dye C106 as a sensitizer. A power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.2% is achieved under standard reporting conditions. Apart from lowering the viscosity, the addition of sulfolane induces a negative shift of the TiO2 conduction band edge. Strikingly the device performance increases to 8.4% at 50 °C due to higher short circuit photocurrent and fill factor, over‐compensating the loss in open circuit voltage with increasing temperature. The PCE increases also upon decreasing the light intensity of the solar simulator, reaching up to 9% at 50 mW cm?2. Devices based on these new electrolyte formulations show excellent stability during light soaking for 2320 h under full sunlight at 60 °C and also during a 1065 h long heat stress at 80 °C in the dark. A detailed investigation provides important information about the factors affecting the principal photovoltaic parameters during the aging process and the first results from a series of outdoor measurements are reported. |
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Keywords: | photovoltaic devices stability ionic liquid electrolytes sulfolane impedance spectroscopy |
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