Supramolecular ionic liquid gels for quasi-solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells.

A 1-propyl-3-methylimidazolium iodide based supramolecular ionic liquid gel was prepared through the host-guest interactions between a host of β-cyclodextrin and a room temperature ionic liquid type guest, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis((trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl)imide, which contains bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide as the guest group. The gel-to-sol phase transition temperature of the prepared supramolecular ionic liquid gel could be tuned by the ratio of host to guest. The synthesized supramolecular ionic liquid gel was further applied in quasi-solid-state electrolyte dye-sensitized solar cells, which showed a power conversion efficiency of 4.79% under the simulated air mass 1.5 solar spectrum illumination at 100 mW cm(-2) and excellent long-term stability.