Evaluation of photovoltaic efficiency of dye‐sensitized solar cells fabricated with electrospun PVDF‐PAN‐Fe₂O₃ composite membrane

Abstract

Poly(vinylidene fluoride)‐polyacrylonitrile‐based membranes containing Fe2O3 nanoparticles were prepared by electrospinning technique and characterized by HR‐SEM, FTIR, and XRD analysis. The effect of electrolyte in the electrospun nanofibers on electrolyte uptake, ionic conductivity and porosity were studied. The electrospun membranes containing Fe2O3 showed an enhanced ionic conductivity than that of without Fe2O3. Among the prepared membranes, the membrane with 7 wt % Fe2O3 has the highest liquid electrolyte uptake of 562% and ionic conductivity of 6.81 × 10−2 S cm−1. The photovoltaic performance for open circuit voltage (Voc), Short‐circuit current density (Jsc), Fill factor (FF), and η of the DSSC fabricated with 7 wt % Fe2O3 are 0.77 V, 10.4 mA/cm2, 0.62 and 4.9%, respectively. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014, 131, 41107.

Recent progress in electrospinning TiO2 nanostructured photo‐anode of dye‐sensitized solar cells

“…This could be attributed to improved dye loading amount in the photo‐anode composed of TiO 2 NT; in this case, the TiO 2 NT would pack more compactly and have less void space among the NT. Through studying the charge transport and electron combination in DSSC photo‐anodes made of electrospun TiO 2 NT, the results indicated that the TiO 2 nanotube‐based photo‐anodes had larger charge diffusion coefficient and slower electron recombination than the photo‐anodes made of TiO 2 NP . Similarly, with the same co‐axial electrospinning, Zhang et al .…”

Bio and non‐bio materials‐based quasi‐solid state electrolytes in DSSC : A review

“…Polymer gel‐type QSEs are also incorporated with metal oxides such as TiO 2 , 134 SiO 2 , 129 ZnO, 135 NiO, 136 and Fe 2 O 3 137 . Accordingly, Saidi et al synthesized Poly(1‐vinylpyrrolidone‐co‐vinyl acetate) (PVVA)‐based QSE incorporated with porous Co 3 O 4 nanocube via sonochemical process 117 .…”

“…Polymer gel-type QSEs are also incorporated with metal oxides such as TiO 2 , 134 SiO 2 , 129 ZnO, 135 NiO, 136 and Fe 2 O 3 . 137 Accordingly, Saidi et al synthesized Poly (1-vinylpyrrolidone-co-vinyl acetate) (PVVA)-based QSE incorporated with porous Co 3 O 4 nanocube via sonochemical process. 117 The addition of 3 wt% Co 3 O 4 (PVVA-3) decreased the bulk resistance (RB = 31.7 Ω) and increased the ionic conductivity up to 3.3 Â 10 À8 cm 2 /s.…”

Preparation, characterization and photocatalytic performance of hetero-structured CuO-ZnO loaded composite nanofiber membranes

“…8(b-e) Cu(Ac)2 and Zn(Ac)2 in XRD spectra of the CNFMs increased, and the diffraction peaks at 34° appeared and increased gradually. At the same time, the diffraction peaks at 21° changed from smooth to sharp gradually, which might be due to the superposition of the diffraction peaks of PVDF with those of Cu(Ac)2 and Zn(Ac)2 between 5° and 20° [42][43][44]…”