Influence of various cations on redox behavior of I− and I3− and comparison between KI complex with 18-crown-6 and 1,2-dimethyl-3-propylimidazolium iodide in dye-sensitized solar cells

In this paper, we studied the influence of different cations on redox behavior of I− and I3− by cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. It was demonstrated that increasing cation size tends to give rise to higher reductive activity of I− and lower diffusion coefficient of I3− in these cations, alkylimidazolium, [Na ⊂ 15-C-5]+ and [K ⊂ 18-C-6]+. Moreover, we measured the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) with electrolyte containing [K ⊂ 18-C-6]I or 1,2-dimethyl-3-propylimidazolium iodide (DMPII). It was found that dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) with [K ⊂ 18-C-6]I give a little higher short-circuit photocurrent density and a little lower fill factor than DSCs with DMPII.