Improvement of Dye-Hydrogel Based Photovoltaics via Hydroquinone Electrolyte Mediators

>> Besides high-efficient photovoltaics based on silicon, polymers, dye-sensitization and hybrid perovskite materials, biomimetic solar cells inspired by a leaf in nature has also been actively studied. As one example, a hydrogel based photovoltaics (HGPV) is a low-cost, environmentally friendly device and requires easy fabrication process. In this paper, the effect of hydroquinone additive on the performance of the HGPV is discussed. The photocurrent increases ~14 times upon the addition of hydroquinone into the agarose hydrogel medium. The photocurrent increase is maximum at the optimum dye concentration, while the photovoltage is barely affected by the dye concentration. The effect of the agarose content in the hydrogel and the types of dyes on the photocurrent is also investigated. Finally, it is shown that the photovoltaic performance of HGPV with hydroquinone can be drastically improved when TiO2 film is deposited on the anode electrode.