Ionic Liquids Based Cocktails as a Composite Redox Electrolyte for Natural Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Ahmad Mudzakir (1), Asep Bayu Dani Nandiyanto (2), Heli Siti Halimatul Munawaroh (3), Karina Mulya Rizky (4), Danar Wulan (5), Lavita Kaova Lazyedara (6), Sendy Arfian Saputra (7)
(1) Departemen Pendidikan Kimia, Fakultas Pendidikan Matematika dan Ilmu Pengetahuan Alam, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, 40154, Indonesia
(2) Departemen Pendidikan Kimia, Fakultas Pendidikan Matematika dan Ilmu Pengetahuan Alam, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, 40154, Indonesia
(3) Departemen Pendidikan Kimia, Fakultas Pendidikan Matematika dan Ilmu Pengetahuan Alam, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, 40154, Indonesia
(4) Departemen Pendidikan Kimia, Fakultas Pendidikan Matematika dan Ilmu Pengetahuan Alam, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, 40154, Indonesia
(5) Departemen Pendidikan Kimia, Fakultas Pendidikan Matematika dan Ilmu Pengetahuan Alam, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, 40154, Indonesia
(6) Departemen Pendidikan Kimia, Fakultas Pendidikan Matematika dan Ilmu Pengetahuan Alam, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, 40154, Indonesia
(7) Departemen Pendidikan Kimia, Fakultas Pendidikan Matematika dan Ilmu Pengetahuan Alam, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, 40154, Indonesia
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Mudzakir, Ahmad, et al. “Ionic Liquids Based Cocktails As a Composite Redox Electrolyte for Natural Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells”. International Journal on Advanced Science, Engineering and Information Technology, vol. 12, no. 5, Sept. 2022, pp. 1844-56, doi:10.18517/ijaseit.12.5.17044.
Fatty-imidazolinium electrolytes, waste graphite dispersed composite electrolytes like cocktails (1,3-methyl octyl-1,2,3-benzotiazolium acetate-cis-oleyl-imidazolinium iodide), and graphite exfoliation using cis-oleyl-imidazolinium acetate have been studied to enhance the efficiency of a newly developing dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The DSSCs were fabricated in a sandwich structure and characterized using Solar Simulator. The graphite exfoliation was conducted by sonication and microwave energy, as well as the electrochemical method. Cis-oleyl-imidazolinium iodide efficiency (0.53%) was highest than stearyl-imidazolinium iodide and palmityl-imidazolinium iodide because cis-oleyl-imidazolinium iodide has a double bond and the longest alkyl chain which triggered a self-assembly structure formation and increased the rate of I-/I3- transport in cells. Then, the efficiency of DSSCs-based composite electrolytes was in the range of 0.020- 0.203%. Dispersion of 0.05% of the graphite results in efficiency enhancement of about 100%, but the greater fraction (0.10%) of the graphite causes a poor performance (lower efficiency), possibly due to interference of the internal electron transportation routes in the DSSC by insoluble graphite. After exfoliation, the conductivity of synthetic graphite (11.58 x 10-1 S/cm), new battery graphite (9.32 x 10-1 S/cm), and battery waste graphite (7.96 x 10-1 S/cm) were increased respectively 10 times, 2 times, and 4 times from the graphite before exfoliation due to changes in crystallinity, the distance between layers, crystal size, formation of multilayer graphene, and the occurrence of π to π* transition. This enhancement of solar conversion efficiency can give a new contribution to the development of DSSC.

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