Three Natural Dyes -Based Solid State Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

Three natural dyes have been extracted from fresh and dried materials and used as sensitizers in the fabrication of solid state dye-sensitized solar cells. These dyes are apple, banana and guava. The cells were assembled using nano structured TiO2. The highest efficiency was obtained for the DSSC sensitized with apple which it efficiency is 0.748%. All parameters of the fabricated cells were found. The absorption spectra of these dyes have been investigated by UV-VIS spectrophotometer. The parameters of these three cells such as fill factor (FF), short circuit current density(Jsc), open circuit voltage(Voc)and conversion efficiency(η) for the fabricated cells were evaluated under 1000 W/m2 illumination.