A novel fuel cell device based on integrating the Schottky junction effect with the electrochemical principle is designed, constructed, and verified through experiments. It is found that the Schottky junction has a significant effect on the greatly enhanced device performance, and the fuel cell device incorporating the Schottky junction effect reaches a power output of 1000 mW cm−2 at 550 °C. As a service to our authors and readers, this journal provides supporting information supplied by the authors. Such materials are peer reviewed and may be re-organized for online delivery, but are not copy-edited or typeset. Technical support issues arising from supporting information (other than missing files) should be addressed to the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.
Volatile electrolytes are a stability concern in dye solar cells (DSCs) due to their tendency for leakage. A composite electrolyte consisting of iodide-based ionic liquid and polyaniline-coated carbon black has been previously reported to provide good current transport while being leakage proof due to a quasi-solid structure and the absence of volatile constituents. In this paper we investigate the operating principle of this type of electrolyte and especially its exceptional feature of operating efficiently without added iodine. The absence of additive iodine is significant due to the fact that it is usually required to form the current carrying the I–/I3– redox couple. We modified an electrolyte mass transport model from the literature to estimate the upper limit for the charge transport capability of the composite electrolyte. Comparison of experimental results with the estimated upper limit for the diffusion limiting current density shows clearly that the high current densities observed experimentally with the composite electrolyte can not be explained with normal diffusion even in the case that every feasible source and transport mechanism of free I3– known until now is considered, including photogeneration of I3–, shortened diffusion layer thickness, impurity I3–, and accumulation of I3– to the photoelectrode from the counterelectrode pores and electrolyte edge regions. This intriguing result suggests a currently unknown I3– source or transport mechanism in this type of DSC.
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