Photocurrent generated on a carotenoid-sensitized TiO2 nanocrystalline mesoporous electrode

Photosensitization of colloidal TiO2 nanoparticles with phycocyanin pigment

“…Organic dyes have several advantages as photosensitizers: (a) they are cheaper than Ru complexes, (b) they have large absorption coefficients due to intramolecular d À d * transitions, and (c) there are no concerns about limited resources, because they do not contain noble metals such as ruthenium. DSSCs based on metal-free organic dyes [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26], porphyrin dyes [27][28][29][30][31][32] and natural dyes [33][34][35] have been studied and developed. Since the efficiencies of DSSCs have not yet approached the theoretical limit and are not competitive with the more expensive silicon-based solar cells, their main advantage of cost-effectiveness depends on the utilization of cheap and readily available sensitizer dyes.…”

Ruthenium Polypyridyl Sensitisers in Dye Solar Cells Based on Mesoporous TiO2

“…The most studied dyes are anthocyanins, but the overall efficiencies of this kind of dye are generally much lower than organic or metal complex sensitisers. [27] (b) β-carotene dye [45] and (c) chlorophyll dye. [46] The Electrolyte…”

Betalain pigments as natural photosensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells: the effect of dye pH on the photoelectric parameters

“…Anthocyanins from natural pigments and carotenoids have been used as natural dye sensitizers in DSSC and have shown low to modest solar energy conversion efficiencies [2,[5][6][7]. These natural dyes are easy to prepare, cheap, non-toxic, environmentally friendly, and easily biodegradable.…”