Synthesis of acetyl imidazolium-based electyrolytes and application for dye-sensitized solar cells

Novel ionic liquids based on acetyl imidazolium iodide named as ACII-(NH2, Amide, and Urea) were synthesized and used as electrolytes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The synthesized ACII-NH2 and ACII-Amide are solid state, but ACII-Urea was viscous liquid. These electrolytes have characteristics of an intra- or inter molecular hydrogen bonding interaction through its amine, amide, and urea bonds. And thermogravimetric analysis showed good thermal stability. Among the three ACII based electrolytes, ACII-Urea showed a maximum photo-conversion efficiency of 7.17%. In addition, the performance of the DSSCs showed relatively reasonable compared with other conventional liquid type electrolytes.