Poly(acrylamide-co-acrylic acid)-based gel polymer electrolytes incorporated with sodium iodide for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs)

Copolymers are materials with contrasting properties such as mechanical stability and electrical performance that can be linked together to enhance the flexibility of the polymer chain. In this present work, a series of poly(acrylamide-co-acrylic acid) (PAA)-based gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs) containing iodide/triiodide (I − /I 3 ) redox mediator from sodium iodide (NaI) dopant salt was synthesized. Temperature-dependent ionic conductivity of the GPEs was observed using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy in the temperature range of 303–363 K. The GPE with 50 wt% of NaI salt (PAA-50) achieved the highest ionic conductivity ( σ ) of 3.79 × 10 −2 S cm −1 at ambient temperature with an activation energy of 0.098 eV. FTIR was utilized to evaluate the formation of complexes between the copolymer and additives in the GPEs. The DSSCs were assembled by sandwiching the GPEs between a photoanode and platinum (Pt) counter electrode for photovoltaic studies. PAA-50 achieved the highest photovoltaic conversion efficiency ( η ) of 0.325% with short-circuit current density ( J sc ) of 1.2807 mA cm −2 , open-circuit voltage ( V oc ) of 0.442 mV, and fill factor (FF) of 59.76%.