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A light-scattering cyanobiphenyl derivative 6-[(4'-cyano(1,1'-biphenyl)-4-yl)oxy]he-xanoic acid (CBHA) was designed, synthesized and applied as a co-adsorbent for dye-sensitized solar cells. The effect of CBHA on the light absorption and reflectance of dyed-TiO2 photoanodes was investigated in detailed. It revealed that a certain amount of CBHA adding to dye Z907 could obviously increase the light absorption of TiO2 photoanodes by decreasing the dye loading amount and possibility of aggregation. Meanwhile, light-scattering property of CBHA rendered their TiO2 photoanodes higher light-harvesting efficiency. In addition, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy results indicated that CBHA could restrain the interfacial electron recombination for longer life time. Thus, a performance improvement of ∼0.81% from 5.23% to 6.04% could be obtained by the resulting device employing CBHA. Moreover, the DSSCs with CBHA also display better stability than the referenced devices. This novel light-scattering co-absorbent offers us a feasible strategy to design multiple functional co-adsorbents for high performance dye-sensitized solar cells.

A new three-armed imidazolium phenoxy ionic liquid (TIPIL) has been successfully designed, synthesized and characterized. The thermal property, amorphous feature and ionic conductivity of TIPIL were also investigated. 1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium iodide (EMII), a typical ionic conductor, could be effectively inhibited from crystallization by TIPIL, which has been characterized by several testing. Thus, as a crystal growth inhibitor, TIPIL was used into EMII based solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (ssDSSCs). Compared with the reference device, the DSSC containing TIPIL showed improved photovoltaic conversion efficiency up to 5.37%, and displayed excellent long-term stability. These results provide us a feasible method to explore new crystal growth inhibitors for ssDSSCs.

A novel crown ether lithium salt complex [Li∈12-C-4][I] has been designed, synthesized and characterized. The thermal properties of the [Li∈12-C-4][I] based solid-state electrolytes were also investigated in detail. The particular trapping ability of 12-crown-4 to Li+ can obviously reduce the cation–anion (Li+–I−) interaction and hence facilitate favorable electrical properties of the solid-state electrolytes. Therefore, [Li∈12-C-4][I] represents ionic conductivity of 3.93 × 10−5 and 1.53 × 10−4 S cm−1 at 25 and 80 °C, respectively. Further addition of the ionic liquid 1-propyl-3-methylimidazolium iodine as a crystal growth inhibitor can effectively suppress the crystallization of the complex for more amorphous and smoother regions, which are much more conducive towards higher ion conductivity by the segmental motion of molecule chains. For application, the resulting device showed a power conversion efficiency of 5% and displayed excellent long-term stability. These results offer us more opportunities to explore simple and novel solid-state electrolytes for energy storage and conversion.

In situ thermal polymerization of a model ionic liquid monomer and ionic liquids mixture to form gel electrolytes is developed for quasi-solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (Q-DSSCs). The chemical structures and thermal property of the monomers and polymer are investigated in detail. The effect of iodine concentration on the conductivity and triiodide diffusion of the gel electrolytes is also investigated in detail. The conductivity and triiodide diffusion of the gel electrolytes increase with the increasing I2 concentration, while excessive I2 contents will decrease the electrical performances. Based on the in situ thermal polymeric gel electrolytes for Q-DSSCs, highest power conversion efficiency of 5.01% has been obtained. The superior long-term stability of fabricated DSSCs indicates that the cells based on in situ thermal polymeric gel electrolytes can overcome the drawbacks of the volatile liquid electrolyte. These results offer us a feasible method to explore new gel electrolytes for high-performance Q-DSSCs. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015, 132, 42802.