Dye-sensitized solar cell with a solid state organic–inorganic composite electrolyte containing catalytic functional polypyrrole nanoparticles

Abstract

An organic–inorganic composite electrolyte with tetra-n-butyl titanate and ethylene glycol is prepared with sol–gel method and used in fabricating solid state dye-sensitized solar cell (S-DSSC). The addition of acetyl acetone into the composite electrolyte can extend the solidification time to meet the time requirement for assembling S-DSSC. The addition of 4-tert-butylpyridine can enhance the photovoltaic performance of S-DSSC due to its efficient suppressing of dark current in S-DSSC. Furthermore, with the addition of catalytic functional polypyrrole nanoparticles for transformation of iodide/triiodide redox couples in the composite electrolyte, the energy conversion efficiency of S-DSSC increases from 3.147 to 3.597%, with 14% enhancement.