Layered Double Hydroxides as an Effective Additive in Polymer Gelled Electrolyte based Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Layered double hydroxides (LDH), a class of anionic clay materials, were developed as an effective additive for polymer gelled electrolytes for use in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). Carbonate and chloride intercalated Zn-Al LDHs, ZnAl-CO3 LDH, and ZnAl-Cl LDH were prepared with coprecipitation methods. The addition of the two LDHs significantly improved, in terms of power conversion efficiency (PCE), over the plain poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) gelled electrolyte and competed favorably with the liquid electrolyte based DSSCs, 8.13% for the liquid electrolyte, 7.48% for the plain PVDF-HFP gelled electrolyte, 8.11% for the ZnAl-CO3 LDH/PVDF-HFP gelled electrolyte, and 8.00% for the ZnAl-Cl LDH/PVDF-HFP gelled electrolyte based DSSCs. The good performance in PCEs achieved by the LDH-loaded DSSCs came mainly from the significant boost in open circuit voltages (Voc), from 0.74 V for both the liquid electrolyte and PVDF-HFP gelled electrolyte based DSSCs to 0.79 V for both the ...