Gel polymer electrolytes based on polyacrylonitrile and a novel quaternary ammonium salt for dye-sensitized solar cells

Gel polymer electrolytes were prepared by incorporating polyacrylonitrile (PAN) in a mixture of polysiloxane with quaternary ammonium side groups (PSQAS), ethylene carbonate (EC), propylene carbonate (PC) and iodine. The influence of PAN content on the ionic conductivity of gel polymer electrolytes and the charge-transfer kinetic performance in counterelectrode–electrolyte interface was investigated. The dye-sensitized solar cell with the gel polymer electrolyte containing 5 wt.% PAN showed the best photovoltaic performance; a maximum incident photon conversion efficiency of 63% at 520 nm was obtained, the short-circuit photocurrent density (Jsc), the open-circuit voltage (Voc) and the fill factor (FF) were 7 mA cm−2, 0.565 V and 0.65, respectively. The corresponding overall conversion efficiency (η) is 4.3%.