Ionic Liquids

Extraordinary properties: Merck Ionic Liquids for dye solar cells

Ionic liquids (IL) represent a new generation in chemistry with potential uses in a variety of industries. They are innovative materials with extraordinary properties, offering unique tailoring advantages for a vast number of applications. Ionic liquids are nonvolatile, nonflammable and have a high solvation capacity, high thermal stability and a broad electrochemical window of up to 6 V. Merck has been conducting extensive research in the field of ionic liquids for almost ten years and provides a wide range of IL products and services.

Your advantages - Best quality and performance

For the photovoltaic (PV) industry, Merck offers a broad selection of ionic liquids for electrolyte systems, allowing you to balance high electrochemical stability and low viscosity. For instance, Merck supplies ionic liquids for dye solar cell or dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) applications that provide premium quality and performance. Using our state-of-the-art quality control equipment, we can ensure that ionic liquids from Merck meet the rigorous requirements of electrolyte systems in terms of both properties and economic scale. The advantages offered by the use of IL in electrochemical devices include safer electrolytes thanks to low flammability, better long-term stability through use of non-volatile ILs as solvents.

Applications - Dye-sensitized solar cells

DSC design comprises low-cost materials, can be produced with a roll-to-roll process, and does not require elaborate manufacturing equipment - promising a very competitive price-performance ratio when produced in bulk quantities. The first commercial DSC applications have now appeared on the market, e.g. for charging cell phones. As DSC can be made flexible, many future applications are conceivable: For example, dye solar cells could be used in automobiles, or they could even be applied to tent walls to run an LED at night.

The technology - Ionic Liquids in DSC

In the dye-sensitized solar cell, the photoelectrons are provided by a separate photosensitive dye. One problem with this design is its temperature sensitivity when conventional solvents are used in the liquid electrolyte in the cell. In daily use, the DSC is exposed to temperatures ranging from 0 to up to 80°C. These temperature changes cause conventional solvents to expand and shrink, which can rapidly lead to sealing problems. Nonvolatile ionic liquids, however, are ideally suited as solvent in the DSC electrolyte due to their negligible vapor pressure, temperature stability and favorable electrochemical properties. Merck owns intellectual property for specific ionic liquids used in applications involving DSC, has already completed production scale-up and operates application and research laboratories in Japan and Germany.

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