ANALYSIS OF GRAPHITE:PVA-BASED TRANSPARENT ELECTRODES WITH DMSO AS AN ADDITIVE FOR TRANSPARENT SOLAR CELL APPLICATIONS

Abstrak

Abstract

Transparent electrodes must transmit visible light while conducting charge, but conventional oxide electrodes may be costly, brittle, and process intensive. This study investigated graphite:polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) composite films with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as an additive and evaluated their preliminary use in a simple dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) prototype. Six films were prepared using graphite:PVA ratios of 2:98, 3:97, and 5:95 with 0 or 5% DMSO. The mixtures were deposited on glass by doctor blade and annealed at 100 °C. Optical transmittance at 550 nm and electrical conductivity were measured using UV-Vis spectroscopy and a four-point probe, followed by calculation of the Haacke figure of merit (FoM). Prototypes using Eosin Y dye, KI/I2 electrolyte, and a candle-soot counter electrode were tested under halogen illumination with a 1-ohm load. DMSO increased conductivity at every graphite ratio. Sample S2 achieved the highest transmittance (76.88%) and FoM (2.02 × 10⁻⁹), whereas S6 reached the highest reported conductivity (0.006378564 S/m). Device performance did not follow FoM directly: S4 produced the highest output power (5.53536 mW) and simple efficiency (88.57%). Graphite:PVA-DMSO films therefore show potential as low-cost alternative electrodes for simple photovoltaic prototypes. Standardized irradiance and full current-voltage testing are still required because the reported efficiency is a prototype metric based on lux-derived input and single-load output.

Keywords: transparent electrode; graphite; polyvinyl alcohol; dimethyl sulfoxide; dye-sensitized solar cell