Gelation of Ionic Liquid-Based Electrolytes with Silica Nanoparticles for Quasi-Solid-State Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract
For the first time silica nanoparticles were used to solidify ionic liquids. These ionic liquid-based quasi-solid-state electrolytes were successfully employed for regenerative photoelectrochemical cells that yielded 7% efficiency at AM 1.5 sunlight in combination with an amphiphilic ruthenium polypyridyl photosensitizer.