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. 2020 Aug 12;10(8):1585.
doi: 10.3390/nano10081585.

Hydrogel Electrolytes Based on Xanthan Gum: Green Route towards Stable Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Simone Galliano  1 , Federico Bella  2 , Matteo Bonomo  1 , Guido Viscardi  1 , Claudio Gerbaldi  2 , Gerrit Boschloo  3 , Claudia Barolo  1   4
Affiliations

Hydrogel Electrolytes Based on Xanthan Gum: Green Route towards Stable Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Simone Galliano et al. Nanomaterials (Basel). .

Abstract

The investigation of innovative electrolytes based on nontoxic and nonflammable solvents is an up-to-date, intriguing challenge to push forward the environmental sustainability of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Water is one of the best choices, thus 100% aqueous electrolytes are proposed in this work, which are gelled with xanthan gum. This well-known biosourced polymer matrix is able to form stable and easily processable hydrogel electrolytes based on the iodide/triiodide redox couple. An experimental strategy, also supported by the multivariate chemometric approach, is used here to study the main factors influencing DSSCs efficiency and stability, leading to an optimized system able to improve its efficiency by 20% even after a 1200 h aging test, and reaching an overall performance superior to 2.7%. In-depth photoelectrochemical investigation demonstrates that DSSCs performance based on hydrogel electrolytes depends on many factors (e.g., dipping conditions, redox mediator concentrations, etc.), that must be carefully quantified and correlated in order to optimize these hydrogels. Photovoltaic performances are also extremely reproducible and stable in an open cell filled in air atmosphere, noticeably without any vacuum treatments.

Keywords: aqueous dye-sensitized solar cells; biosourced polymer; design of experiments; stability; xanthan gum.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) General molecular structure of XG, with “n” ranging between 2000 and 20,000. (b) UV−Vis transmittance spectra of aqueous liquid (black) and xanthan-based hydrogel (red) electrolytes.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Best photovoltaic performance (a) VOC (voltage at open circuit); (b) JSC (short circuit current); (c) FF (fill factor); (d) PCE (power conversion efficiency); and relative errors over time for aqueous liquid (black squares) and hydrogel (red circles) dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Data points refer to the third of three consecutive measurements at 1 sun.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Best photovoltaic performance (a) VOC (voltage at open circuit); (b) JSC (short circuit current); (c) FF (fill factor); (d) PCE (power conversion efficiency); and relative errors over time for aqueous liquid (black squares) and hydrogel (red circles) dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Data points refer to the third of three consecutive measurements at 1 sun.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(a) J−V curves and (b) IPCE spectra for the best LIQ-1 (black squares) and XG-1 (liquid circles) DSSCs measured after ≈1100 h of aging.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Photocurrent (a) LIQ-1 and (b) XG-1 based DSSCs, and (c) photovoltage in function of the light intensity for the best DSSCs, performed after ≈800 h of aging test.
Figure 5
Figure 5
(a) Electron lifetime and (b) transport time. Extracted charges for aqueous liquid and hydrogel cells as a function of (c) VOC and (d) JSC under different light intensities.
Figure 5
Figure 5
(a) Electron lifetime and (b) transport time. Extracted charges for aqueous liquid and hydrogel cells as a function of (c) VOC and (d) JSC under different light intensities.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Isoresponse contour plots of electron lifetime as a function of different experimental factors.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Photovoltaic parameters of DoE cells during the 50 days of the aging test. Data points refer to the third of three consecutive measurements at 1 sun. Lines just connect data points and have no physical meaning.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Contour plots for (A) VOC, (B) JSC, (C) FF and (D) PCE variation as a function of factors.
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