Performance of polymer electrolyte based on chitosan blended with poly(ethylene oxide) for plasmonic dye-sensitized solar cell

Chitosan and poly(ethylene oxide) powders have been mixed in different weight ratios. To each mixture, a fixed amount of ammonium iodide has been added. All mixtures have been dissolved in 1% acetic acid solution to form polymer blend electrolyte films by the solution cast technique. X-ray diffraction indicates that the polymer blend electrolytes are amorphous. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy shows shifting of the amine, carboxamide and C-O-C bands to lower wavenumbers indicating the occurrence of complexation. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy has been used to study the electrical properties of the samples. The ionic conductivity for 55 wt.% chitosan-45 wt.% NH4I electrolyte system is 3.73 x 10(-7) S cm(-1) at room temperature and is increased to 3.66 x 10(-6) S cm(-1) for the blended film (16.5 wt.% chitosan-38.5 wt.% PEO)-45 wt.% NH4I film. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been fabricated by sandwiching the polymer electrolyte between the TiO2/dye photoelectrode and Pt counter electrode. DSSCs fabricated exhibits short-circuit current density (L) of 2.71 mA cm(-2), open circuit voltage (V-oc) of 0.58 V and efficiency of 0.78% with configuration ITO/TiO2/N3 dye/(16.5 wt.% chitosan-38.5 wt.% PEO)-45 wt.% NH4I(+I-2)/Pt/ITO and J(sc) of 2.84 mA cm(-2), V-oc of 0.58 V and efficiency of 1.13% with configuration ITO/TiO2 Ag nanoparticles/N3 dye/(16.5 wt.% chitosan-38.5 wt.% PEO)-45 wt.% NH4I(+I-2)/Pt/ITO. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.