Dye Sensitized Solar Cell Using Natural Dyes as Chromophores - Review

Abstract

The molecular dye is an essential component of the Dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC), and improvements in efficiency over the last 15 years have been achieved by tailoring the optoelectronic properties of the dye. The most successful dyes are based on ruthenium bipyridyl compounds, which are characterized by a large absorption coefficient in the visible part of the solar spectrum, good adsorption properties, excellent stability, and efficient electron injection. However, ruthenium-based compounds are relatively expensive, and organic dyes with similar characteristics and even higher absorption coefficients have recently been reported; solar cells with efficiencies of up to 9% have been reported. Organic dyes with a higher absorption coefficient could translate into thinner nanostructured metal oxide films, which would be advantageous for charge transport both in the metal oxide and in the permeating phase, allowing for the use of higher viscosity materials such as ionic liquids, solid electrolytes or hole conductors. Organic dyes used in the DSSC often bear a resemblance to dyes found in plants, fruits, and other natural products, and several dye-sensitized solar cells with natural dyes have been reported. This paper gives an over-view of the recent works in DSSC using the natural dyes as chromophores.

Finding the Way to Solar Fuels with Dye-Sensitized Photoelectrosynthesis Cells

“…An extensive and growing list of chromophores has been investigated for applications in DSSC devices. − ,− Ru­(II) polypyridyl chromophores have dominated DSPEC investigations to date, but 3,4:9,10-substituted perylenes, , porphyrins, ,,,, and amine-thiophene-based donor–acceptor dyes , have also been used.…”

Room temperature synthesis of crystalline Sb2S3 for SnO2 photoanode-based solar cell application

“…The wavelength dependence of optical absorption spectra of as-prepared Sb 2 S 3 nanospheres was analysed in the wavelength range of 300-850 nm and the band gap was calculated. Figure 4a shows the plot of (absorbance) 2 Figure 4b shows wavelength-dependent absorption spectra for Sb 2 S 3 , SnO 2 and SnO 2 /Sb 2 S 3 . The SnO 2 film exhibits absorption around wavelength less than 340 nm, quite suitable as window material, seldom studied for semiconductor sensitized-based solar cell, 27 as compared with TiO 2 .…”

“…1 Although the dyesensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have considerable conversion efficiency, the complex structure of dyes, their availability and stability put certain constrains on their industrial applications. 2 Therefore, nowadays semiconductor materials with narrow band gap are attractive alternative to the lightharvesting dye molecules because of their tunable electrical, optical and structural properties. 3,4 The semiconductor with unique properties like tunable band gap over a wide range to match the solar spectrum, good photostability, broad excitation spectra, high extinction coefficient and multiple exciton generation capability makes them potentially suitable for photovoltaic's applications.…”

Natural dyes as photo-sensitizer in solar cells

“…A current-voltage (IV) curve is obtained by plotting short-circuit current density (Jsc) against opencircuit voltage (Voc) [6] as shown in Figure 5. , and obtained values are tabulated in Table 2.…”