A Study On Characteristics of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells with Gel Electrolyte

Recently, renewable energy has been vigorously studied in line of reduction of emission of a greenhouse gases, which introduce the environmental problems such as a global warming and then a destruction of ecosystem. The solar cell is one of the technologies that utilize unlimited and pollution-free renewable energy. Among the solar cells, DSSC(dye-sensitized solar cell) has been thoroughly studied in favor of the simple manufacturing process and low manufacturing cost. In this work, the DSSC with the gel-type electrolyte has been studied with PVP(poly vinyl pyrrolidone) as a conducting polymer. Comparing to the liquid electrolyte DSSC, the gel electrolyte seemed less likely to penetrate into between the TiO₂ particles and thus showed a lower efficiency. The gel type electrolyte prepared with the polymer content of 0.068 wt%, and fabrication temperature and duration of 373K and 8 hours, respectively, showed the efficiency as high as 4.71%, representing the most suitable manufacturing conditions. The findings that the DSSC with the non-metal and metal salts added into the gel electrolyte showed even lower conductivity and efficiency indicate interference of the electron mobility in the electrolyte and further study is guaranteed.