Development and characterization of ionic liquid doped solid polymer electrolyte membranes for better efficiency

Solid polymer electrolyte membranes based on poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) polymer electrolyte incorporated with low viscosity ionic liquid (IL), 1-ethyl 3-methylimidazolium trifluoromethanesulfonate (EMImTFO−) have been prepared and used in dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) application. Ionic conductivity (σ) measurement shows improvement in σ due to reduced crystallinity and free charge carriers provided by IL which was further affirmed by our differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and optical microscopy (OM) measurements. Surface feature of films was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) measurement. The photovoltaic characteristics of the fabricated DSSC are compared with those without IL, in which the low viscosity IL doped solid polymer electrolyte system shows excellent improvement in efficiency.