Multipolymer Electrolyte Membranes Designed by Oxygen Inhibited UV-Induced Polymerization for Integrated Energy Conversion and Storage Devices

The increasing energy request in off-grid conditions is forcing the scientific and industrial community to explore the feasibility of integrated photovoltaic (PV)-based harvesting storage devices. Among the third generation PV technologies a valuable compromise between cost, relatively high efficiency and stability is represented by the so called dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), that improve their conversion efficiency under low illumination conditions. Regarding the storage section, electrical double layer capacitors (EDLCs) are reaching wide attention due to their simple configuration, long cycle life and high power density. Here we present a novel polymer-based platform applied for the fabrication of an innovative two-electrodes self-powered device integrating energy harvesting and storage sections. For the energy harvesting section, one side of the polymeric layer is adapted to enable iodide/triiodide diffusion in a DSSC, while the other side empowers sodium/chloride ions diffusion and is employed for on-board charge storage in an EDLC. The measured photo-electrical conversion and storage total efficiency is of 3.72% during photo-charge, which is among the highest values reported in literature for a DSSC-EDLC harvesting-storage device.