Performance Improvements of DSSC with EB Irradiated PAN/PEObased Gel Electrolyte

Abstract: In this work， PAN/PEO (polyacrylonitrile/polyethylene oxide)based gel electrolyte was irradiated by electron beam (EB) with dose from 13 to 260 kGy. Then， DSSC (dyesensitized solar cell) was fabricated by the irradiated electrolyte and characterized. The results show that the efficiency of the DSSC fabricated by irradiated electrolyte is promoted comparing with DSSC fabricated by unirradiated electrolyte. And with irradiation dose increasing， the DSSC efficiency increases rapidly at first (0～65 kGy)， then， drops down slowly (65～130 kGy)， finally trends to a stable value (130～260 kGy). It indicates that there is an optimal irradiation dose， at which the promotion of DSSC efficiency is the highest， approximate 36%. Observed from the change of shortcircuit current， opencircuit voltage and fill factor， shortcircuit current promotion by EB irradiation is found to be the main reason of DSSC performance promotion. The time stability measurement of the DSSC indicates that EB irradiation on PAN/PEO electrolyte reduces the loss of efficiency and the limitingeffects become more apparent as the irradiation dose increases.