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Developing cost-effective solid-state electrolyte is a urgent issue and a common request for (photo) electrochemical cells. In this work, a series of organic ionic conductors based on the S-substituted benzothiophenium salts have been synthesized via a simple and low-cost method. Research on the thermal behavior, optical absorption and ionic conductivity shows that S-methylbenzothiophenium tetrafluoroborate ([MBT]BF4) among them have the good thermal stability, high ionic conductivity and no absorption in the visible region. And the solid-state electrolyte using [MBT]BF4 as the matrix exhibits the good interfacial compatibility with photoanode. Applying this solid-state electrolyte into the quantum-dot sensitized solar cell (QDSSCs), the device achieves an open circuit voltage of 0.71 V, a short circuit current density of 20.73 mW cm−2, and a power conversion efficiency of 5.49% which is higher than those previously reported for the solid-state QDSSCs.

Manganese doped titanium dioxide was synthesized using hydrothermal technique and applied to photo-anode films for quantum dot sensitized solar cells after combined with commercially available titania. The products and cells were characterized with XRD, TEM, and electrochemical methods. At the optimum Mn-doped TiO2 content, an open circuit voltage of 0.61 V is received on CdS sensitized quantum dot solar cells with an overall efficiency of 2.9%. Mott-Schottky traces suggest that a more negative flat-band potential accounts for the higher voltage.