Synthesis of high polydispersity index polylactic acid and its application as gel electrolyte towards fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cells

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) are became more popular as a new type of solar cell because of their environmental friendliness and low cost. Their large-scale application still requires overcoming the problems of volatilization and loss of liquid electrolytes, which leads to a reduction in the lifetime of the cell. In this paper, Polylactic acid (PLA) with a different Polydispersity index (PDI) is first synthesized via the Aluminium ring-opening method and then stirred with liquid electrolyte for 24 h to form polymer gel electrolyte (PGE). The PGE is then characterized using various analytical tools. Results show a strong interaction between hydroxyl and carboxylate groups of PEG and PLA to form a chelating structure (egg-box model).The polymer gel electrolyte exhibit high ionic conductivity (7.60 × 10 S cm). The fabricated dye-sensitized solar cells configuration (Glass/FTO/TiO/MK-2 dye/PGE/Pt/FTO/glass) shows a photocurrent conversion efficiency (PCE) of 5.64% under a solar light illumination of 85 mW cm. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]