Innovative multipolymer electrolyte membrane designed by oxygen inhibited UV-crosslinking enables solid-state in plane integration of energy conversion and storage devices

In this paper a novel polymer-based platform is applied for the fabrication of an innovative two-electrodes self-powered device integrating energy harvesting and storage sections. A multifunctional polymeric layer, made of two poly(ethylene glycol)-based sections separated by a perfluorinated barrier, is obtained by oxygen-inhibited UV-light crosslinking procedure. For the energy harvesting section, one side of the polymeric layer is adapted to enable iodide/triiodide diffusion in a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC), while the other side empowers sodium/chloride ions diffusion and is used for on-board charge storage in an electrochemical double layer capacitor (EDLC). The resulting photocapacitor has a planar architecture appreciably simplified with respect to other recently proposed solutions and more easily exploitable in low power electronics. The measured photo-electrical conversion and storage total efficiency is 3.72% during photo-charge, which is a remarkable value for DSSC-EDLC harvesting-storage devices literature. The obtained high frequency discharge capability enlightens promising prospects for practical applications in low power portable electronics.