title: Development of dye-sensitized solar cells composed of liquid crystal embedded, electrospun poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) nanofibers as polymer gel electrolytes.
abstract: In order to overcome the problems associated with the use of liquid electrolytes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), a new system composed of liquid crystal embedded, polymer electrolytes has been developed. For this purpose, three types of DSSCs have been fabricated. The cells contain electrospun poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (e-PVdF-co-HFP) polymer gel electrolyte, with and without doping with the liquid crystal E7 and with a liquid electrolyte. The morphologies of the newly prepared DSSCs were explored using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). Analysis of the FE-SEM images indicate that the DSSC composed of E7 embedded on e-PVdF-co-HFP polymer gel electrolyte has a greatly regular morphology with an average diameter. The ionic conductivity of E7 embedded on e-PVdF-co-HFP polymer gel electrolyte was found to be 2.9 × 10(-3) S/cm at room temperature, a value that is 37% higher than that of e-PVdF-co-HFP polymer gel electrolyte. The DCCS containing the E7 embedded, e-PVdF-co-HFP polymer gel electrolyte was observed to possess a much higher power conversion efficiency (PCE = 6.82%) than that of an e-PVdF-co-HFP nanofiber (6.35%). In addition, DSSCs parameters of the E7 embedded, e-PVdF-co-HFP polymer gel electrolyte (V(oc) = 0.72 V, J(sc) = 14.62 mA/cm(2), FF = 64.8%, and PCE = 6.82% at 1 sun intensity) are comparable to those of a liquid electrolyte (V(oc) = 0.75 V, J(sc) = 14.71 mA/cm(2), FF = 64.9%, and PCE = 7.17%, both at a 1 sun intensity).
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry Education, Institute for Plastic Information and Energy Materials, Pusan National University, Busan 609-735, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sung Kwang
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.forename: Taewon
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ban
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sakthivel
authors.forename: Jae Wook
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Yeong-Soon
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Gal
authors.forename: Jin-Kook
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Mi-Ra
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sung-Ho
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Jin