Preparation of polymer film of micro-porous or island-like structure and its application in dye-sensitized solar cell

A polystyrene (PS) film of micro-porous or island-like structure has been prepared by spin-coating the PS–PMMA (polymethyl-methacrylate) blend on sputtered platinum electrode, followed by selectively dissolving PMMA out of the blend. The film forms either micro-porous or island-like structure depending on the blending proportion of PS to PMMA. After soaking with liquid electrolyte, this film can be utilized as gel polymer electrolyte for dye-sensitized solar cell to improve its durability because the evaporation rate of liquid electrolyte can be significantly reduced. As to the convenience of cell assembly, this polymer film can also serve as a spacer and effectively separate the photo-anode and counter electrode. In addition, we also find that the cell performance is affected significantly by the polymer blend concentration. An energy conversion efficiency of 4.58% can be obtained with 2 wt% PS–2 wt% PMMA blend proportion under AM 1.5, 1 Sun illumination.