Review on the Revolution of Polymer Electrolytes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are a suitable replacement for conventional silicon solar cells due to their unique features, such as high energy conversion efficiency and cheap manufacturing cost. The liquid-state DSSCs, however, are poorly sustainable on a long-term basis because volatile liquids are used. The early intention of incorporating polymer into the liquid electrolytes was to curb the problem encountered by liquid electrolytes and enable the DSSCs to function as a long-term stability device. This work briefly reviews how the improvisation has been done on the polymer electrolytes formulation and the extent of how each element can affect the cell efficiency and long-term stability. The role of each component, such as the type of host polymer, iodide salts, nanoparticles, and organic additives that improve the performance of DSSCs, has also been highlighted. This clarified the main purpose of introducing various types of additives into electrolytes to enhance the transport properties as well as the performance of the DSSCs.