Improving optical absorptivity of natural dyes for fabrication of efficient dye-sensitized solar cells

Efficient and cheap dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were fabricated using natural dyes from Pastinaca sativa andBeta vulgaris. Natural dyes are environmentally and economically superior to ruthenium-based dyes because theyare nontoxic and cheap. However, the conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells based on natural dyes islow. One way to improve the DSSC performance is to enhance the absorptivity of extracted dyes. We investigatedthe influence of various factors in the extraction process, such as utilization of different extraction approaches, theacidity of extraction solvent, and different compounds of solvents on the optical absorption spectra. It was foundthat we could considerably enhance the optical absorptivity of dye and consequently the performance of DSSC bychoosing a proper mixture of ethanol and water for extracting solvent and also the acidity of dye solution.

Keywords:

Dye sensitized solar cell , Optical absorption , Natural dye , Betalains