Silica nanoparticle doped organic ionic plastic crystal electrolytes for highly efficient solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells
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Updated: May 14, 2026
Harvesting Solar Energy by Means of Charge-Separating Nanocrystals and Their Solids
Published on: August 23, 2012
Chengzhen Shi1, Lihua Qiu, Xiaojian Chen
1Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Design and Application, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, PR China.
Abstract:
Organic ionic plastic crystal, 1-propyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium iodide (P₁₃I), which possesses a broad plastic phase from -36 to 135 °C, was doped with silica nanoparticles (SiO₂ NPs) and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium iodide (EMII), for the preparation of SiO₂/EMII/P₁₃I solid-state electrolytes for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The thermal properties of all the electrolytes, including solid-solid phase transitions and melting temperatures, were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The effect of silica particles on the ionic conductivity, diffusion of I⁻/I₃⁻ redox couple in electrolytes, and photovoltaic performance for solid-state DSSCs were investigated. The fabricated solid-state DSSCs yielded a high power conversion efficiency of 5.25% under simulated air mass 1.5 solar spectrum illuminations at 50 mW cm⁻². Furthermore, the DSSCs based on SiO₂/EMII/P₁₃I solid-state electrolytes show good stability after an accelerating aging test, demonstrating potential practical applications.
