Photoelectrochemical Performance of Dye-sensitized Organic Photovoltaic Cells Based on Natural Pigments and Wide-bandgap Nanostructured Semiconductor

Chlorophyll and Betalain as Light-Harvesting Pigments for Nanostructured TiO<sub>2</sub> Based Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

“…From this figure, it is indicative that these natural extracts absorb in the visible region of light spectrum and hence meet the requirement for their use as light harvesting pigments in DSSCs. The Ocimum Gratissimum has a peak of 390 nm which is consistent with the characteristic absorption band of chlorophyll [11]. Bougainvillea Spectabilis has absorption peak of 370 nm which indicate presence of betalain pigment.…”

“…The TiO 2 films was prepared using a modified sol-gel method, in which 2 g of P25 TiO 2 powder was dissolved in 10 ml of deionized water mixed with 0.2 mol of Triton-X 100 and 0.4 g of acetaldehyde, then vibrated ultrasonically for 24 hours [11].…”

“…The use of natural dyes have been considered as potential alternatives to the expensive synthetic dyes in enhancing the light response of semiconductor in active layers of solar cells, and have been demonstrated on several solar-cell materials [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22].…”

Silver Nanoparticles as Artificial Antennas for Enhanced Light-Harvesting and Charge Transfer in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

“…Natural dyes as photosensitizers for DSSCs are very attractive because they are of low cost, abundant in supply, and sustainable [2][3][4][5][6]. However, the efficiency of DSSC with natural pigments is still by a factor of 3-4 lower than with synthetic dyes [7].…”

“…R=H or C6H12O6 It is characterized by the presence of carboxylic functional group which allows short distance between the dye skeleton and the point connected to TiO 2 surface, and calls for good bond formation between the TiO 2 and the extract, thus enhancing the binding interaction between the pigment and the TiO 2 film, which brings about good electronic coupling and electron transfer reaction in the visible spectrum [2,4,8].…”