Conductive polymer–carbon–imidazolium composite: a simple means for constructing solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells

A clay-like conductive material comprising polyaniline-loaded carbon black particles and an ethyleneoxide-substituted imidazolium iodide was prepared. The material was sandwiched between dye-coated porous TiO2 and counter-electrode to form a solid-state dye-sensitized solar cell, which works with overall conversion efficiencies of 3.48% and 4.07% for AM 1.5, 100 mW cm(-2) and 23 mW cm(-2) irradiation, respectively.