Journal of Power Sources j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / j p o w s o u r a b s t r a c t Quasi-solid state dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were fabricated with poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) in methoxy propionitrile (MPN) as gel polymer electrolyte (GPE), tetrabutylammonium iodide (TBAI)/iodine (I 2) as redox couple, 4-tertiary butyl pyridine (TBP) as additive and silica nanoparticles as fillers. The energy conversion efficiency of the cell with 5 wt% PVDF-HFP is comparable to that one obtained in liquid electrolyte system. Solar cell containing PVDF-HFP with 0.8 M of TBAI and 0.12 M of I 2 shows maximum short-circuit current density (J SC). Further, tertiary butyl pyridine (TBP) has little effect in improving the performance of the solar cell. Moreover, the addition of 1 wt% silica nanoparticles is found to improve the at-rest durability and the performance of the solar cell. The transient photovoltage and photocurrent measurements were employed to find out the electron lifetimes in TiO 2 electrode with different weight percentages of PVDF-HFP, various concentrations of I 2 and durability of the cell storage at 70 • C. A photocurrent density of 14.04 mA cm −2 , an open-circuit voltage of 0.71 V, a fill factor of 0.598 and an overall conversion efficiency of 5.97% under 100 mW cm −2 was observed for the best performance of a solar cell in this work.