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Polyacrylonitrile–poly(1‐vinyl pyrrolidone‐ co ‐vinyl acetate) blend based gel polymer electrolytes incorporated with sodium iodide salt for dye‐sensitized solar cell applications
Author(s) -
Saidi Norshahirah Mohamad,
Ming Ng Hong,
Omar Fatin Saiha,
Bashir Shahid,
Ramesh K.,
Ramesh S.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.47810
Subject(s) - polyacrylonitrile , materials science , vinyl acetate , dye sensitized solar cell , polymer chemistry , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , electrolyte , polymer , chemical engineering , copolymer , solar cell , nuclear chemistry , electrode , chemistry , composite material , engineering , optoelectronics
New gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs) were prepared via the blending of a polyacrylonitrile polymer and a poly(1‐vinyl pyrrolidone‐ co ‐vinyl acetate) copolymer. The sodium iodide (NaI) salt concentration was varied for each GPE sample. From ionic conductivity (σ) studies, we observed that the sample with a 40 wt % NaI salt content (N40) showed the highest σ of 3.54 × 10 −3 ± 0.05 S/cm at room temperature, and all of the GPE samples obeyed Arrhenius behavior. The dielectric properties of the GPE samples were also analyzed to study the electrical polarization of the materials. The developed GPE samples were also characterized with X‐ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. We also then used the developed GPE samples for the fabrication of dye‐sensitized solar cells by sandwiching them between a photoanode and Pt counter electrode for photovoltaic studies. The highest photovoltaic performance was achieved by N40, with an efficiency of 3.04%. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136 , 47810.