A study of the nanostructure and efficiency of solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells based on a conducting polymer

In this work the nanostructure and efficiency of solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells based on a conducting polymer have been investigated. A conducting polymer has been used as a solid-state electrolyte in the dye-sensitized solar cells. The polymer used in this study is a form of polythiophene synthesized in aqueous media. The obtained polymers were in two different structures: nanoparticles and networks. The structure of the synthesized polymers has been investigated using transmission electron microscope (TEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM). Furthermore, the optical and electrical properties of the synthesized polymers have also been considered. Solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (SSDSCs) have been successfully constructed using these two polymers in addition to the linear poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT). The photovoltaic characteristics of the assembled solar cells showed a good performance under annealing at 100 °C when using the network structure of polythiophene with a conversion power efficiency of 0.83%, while the nanoparticles polythiophene achieved 0.15% efficiency compared to 5.6 × 10(−5)% when using P3HT.