Doping effect of aminopyridine analogous in supramolecular quasi-solid polymer electrolyte for DSSCs: improvement in ionic diffusion leading to superior efficiency

Abstract

In the present work, hydroxy butyl methyl cellulose-based quasi-solid-state polymer gel electrolyte has been prepared by incorporating I−/I3 − couple in ethylene carbonate and propylene carbonate. This bare electrolyte’s properties have been investigated first time by additional doping of amino pyridine analogous moieties such as pyridin-4-amine, di(pyridin-4-yl)amine, and tri(pyridin-4-yl)amine moiety. Effect on ionic conductivity, triiodide diffusion, glass transition temperature, rheology, and photovoltaic performance in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) was briefly evaluated. Addition of dopant creates amorphous loops in the gel matrix, and dopant has lone pair of electrons at the N of pyridile, which attracts the Li+ species of LiI making smooth and fast diffusion of triiodides. Tg and XRD characterizations were performed to prove the immense effect on physical properties. TPA-doped electrolyte shows 4.3 mS/cm conductivity and has explored 3.67% power conversion efficiency in DSSC with N719 sensitizer. This non-volatile type of electrolyte-based DSSCs performs efficiently up 600 h in one sun illumination.