Polymer-sensitized solar cells

AKI 12] Akitsu K., Kubo T., Uchida S. et ai, Polymer-sensitized solar cells using polythiophene derivatives with directly attached carboxylic acid groups ,... 

Wang P, Zakeeruddin SM, Moser JE, Nazeeruddin MK, Sekiguchi T, Gratzel M (2003) A stable-quasi-solid state dye-sensitized solar cell with amphiphilic ruthenium sensitizer and polymer gel electrolyte. Nature Mater 2 402-406... 

Some recent examples including uses as super hydrophobic surfaces [142], medical composites of spun fibers, generating scaffolds for cell attachment [138], thermoplastic elastomers [139], as a supramolecular electrolyte in a dye-sensitized solar cell [190], as a method to align polymer chains [191], or as supramolecular polymer composites [192] have been discussed previously. Still there is ample space to be explored and there definitely will be many more patents and applications in this field. 

A composite material made of zinc oxide and polyvinyl alcohol was prepared by a sonochemical method [135]. Annealing of the composite under air removed the polymer, leaving porous spheres of ZnO. This change was accompanied by a change in the surface area from 2 to 34 m g k The porous ZnO particles were used as the electrode material for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). They were tested by forming a film of the doped porous ZnO on a conductive glass support. The performance of the solar cell is reported. 

Although the first reports of this approach involved studies with metal alloys [3] and minerals [4], within a few years the technique has been extended to a wide variety of research areas. As these findings have been summarized in several reviews [5-8] and also in a monograph [9], attention will be focused here on more recent developments, notably on the mechanical immobilization of particles on electrodes. Today, a huge amount of information is available for electrochemical systems comprising particles enclosed in polymer films or other matrices (see Refs [10-16]). Originally, the main aim of such particle enclosure was to achieve specific electrode properties (e.g., functionalized carbon/polymer materials as electrocatalysts [17, 18] solid-state, dye-sensitized solar cells [19]), rather than to study the electrochemistry of the particles. This situation arose mainly because the preparation of these composites was too cumbersome for assessing the particles properties. The techniques also suffered from interference caused by the other phases that constituted the electrode. 

Closely related to liquid electrolyte dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs, also known as Gratzel cells ) [283,284], the class of soHd-state DSSCs has been developed to improve device stability and reduce complications in the production process [285-288]. Thus, although polymers can be utilized as replacements for sensitizing dyes (as in liquid electrolyte DSSCs) [289-291], the main effort in applying conjugated polymers focuses on soHd-state DSSCs [45,292-298]. With environmentally friendly production of this polymer based solid-state DSSC in mind, a device based on water-soluble polythiophene derivative has been presented as well [299]. 

Nogueira AF, Longo C, De Paoli M-A (2004) Polymers in dye sensitized solar cells overview and perspectives. Coord Chem Rev 248 1455... 

Woo, S., Lee, S.-J., Kim, D.-H., Kim, H., Kim,Y, 2014. Conducting polymer/in-situ generated platinum nanoparticle nanocomposite electrodes for low-cost dye-sensitized solar cells. Electrochim. Acta 116,518-523. 

Saranya, K., Rameez, M., Subramania, A., 2015. Developments in conducting polymer based counter electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells-an overview. Eur. Polym. J. 66,207-227. 

Park et al. [18] reported the synthesis of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on electrospun polymer blend nanofibers as electrolytes. Electrospun poly(vinylidenefluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) and PVDF-HFP/polystyrene (PS) blend nanofibers were prepared as shown in Figure 1.16. The authors reported that the photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitive solar cell (DSSC) devices using electrospun PVDF-HFP/PS (3 1) nanofiber was much better as compared to DSSC devices using electrospun PVDF-HFP nanofiber. It was further observed that the overall power conversion efficiency of the DSSC device using PVDF-HFP nanofiber had a lower value than that of the DSSC device using electrospun PVDF-HFP/PS blend nanofibers... 

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