Mangosteen peel is an inedible portion of a fruit. We are interested in using these residues as components of a dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC). Carbonized mangosteen peel was used with mangosteen peel dye as a natural counter electrode and a natural photosensitizer, respectively. A distinctive mesoporous honeycomb-like carbon structure with a rough nanoscale surface was found in carbonized mangosteen peels. The efficiency of a dye sensitized solar cell using carbonized mangosteen peel was compared to that of DSSCs with Pt and PEDOT-PSS counter electrodes. The highest solar conversion efficiency (2.63%) was obtained when using carbonized mangosteen peel and an organic disulfide/thiolate (T2/T−) electrolyte.

Carbon derived from hair is interesting because it has good electrocatalytic activity due to the existence of innate heteroatom dopants especially nitrogen and sulfur. In this study, a carbon catalyst containing high nitrogen contents (9.47 at.%) was fabricated without using any harsh chemicals. Moreover, the carbonization temperature was only 700°C. Carbonized hair/ PEDOT:PSS composites (C x P) with varied carbon contents from x = 0.2 to 0.8 g were tested as a counter electrode (CE) for a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). This type of DSSC CE has scarcely been investigated. A DSSC with a C 0.6 P CE provides the best efficiency (6.54 ± 0.11%) among all composite CEs because it has a high fill factor (FF) and a high short-circuit current density (J sc ). The efficiency of DSSC with C 0.6 P CE is lower than Pt's (7.29 ± 0.01%) since the Pt-based DSSC has higher FF and J sc values. However, C 0.6 P is still promising as a DSSC CE since it is more cost-effective than Pt.

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