title: Influence of iodide concentration on the efficiency and stability of dye-sensitized solar cell containing non-volatile electrolyte.
abstract: Dye-sensitized solar cells based on nanocrystalline TiO(2) have been fabricated with an amphiphilic ruthenium sensitizer NaRu(4-carboxylic acid-4'-carboxylate)(4,4'-dinonyl-2,2'-bipyridine)(NCS)2, coded as Z-907Na, and a series of non-volatile 3-methoxyproprionitrile (MPN)-based electrolytes with different concentration of 1-methyl-3-propylimidazolium iodide (PMII). The short-circuit photocurrent density increases with increasing iodide concentration until at 1.5 M practically quantitative dye regeneration is achieved as proved by time-resolved laser experiments. Devices containing 1.0 M PMII electrolyte show excellent stability during long-time thermal aging at 80 degrees C and under light soaking at 60 degrees C.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Photonics and Interfaces, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Zhipan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Seigo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Jacques-E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Moser
authors.forename: Shaik M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Zakeeruddin
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grätzel