Date of Award

10-1-2022

Thesis Type

phd

Document Type

Thesis (Restricted Access)

Divisions

science

Department

Dept of Physics

Institution

Universiti Malaya

Abstract

Sodium based gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs) have been developed and used in quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs). Poly(acrylamide-co-acrylic acid) (PAAm-PAA) which contains lone pairs of electrons, such as oxygen and nitrogen atoms was used as the polymer host. The GPE with PAAm-PAA : sodium sulfide (Na2S) aqueous solution : sulfur (S) : ethylene carbonate (EC) : potassium chloride (KCl) in wt.% ratio of 24.7 : 72.5 : 1.8 : 0.4 : 0.6 exhibits the highest ionic conductivity of 70.75 mS·cm-1. The chemical bonds between solvent, polymer, salt and additive were identified by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Different methods of electrode deposition for titanium dioxide (TiO2) layers have been applied for QDSSCs. Cadmium sulfide (CdS) and zinc sulfide (ZnS) sensitized photoanode were synthesized by successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method. The TiO2 with different particle sizes (~14 and 21 nm) was deposited by spin coating and doctor blade methods. The spin coating and doctor blade methods give the thickness of 0.70 μm and 10.51 μm, respectively. The most efficient charge transfer process was observed when the TiO2 electrode was made from the combination of spin-coated 14 nm-TiO2 and doctor-blade 21 nm-TiO2 layers. The best efficiency and charge transfer resistance at the photoanode/ electrolyte interface are 1.80% and 35.33 Ω, respectively.

Note

Thesis (PhD) - Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya, 2022.

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