| Peer-Reviewed

Performance Comparison of Cost Efficient Natural Dye Sensitized Solar Cell

Received: 7 July 2020     Accepted: 22 July 2020     Published: 19 August 2020
Views:       Downloads:
Abstract

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) enticed the attention in photovoltaic design due to their unique features of ease of fabrication, low-cost materials, tunable color, and flexibility. In this work, we studied the performance of a low cost dye-sensitized solar cell structure with several natural dyes as a sensitizer. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) was used as the semiconducting layer. The TiO2 film was fabricated on Florine doped Tin Oxide (FTO) glass plate and was annealed and sintered for an hour at 450°C temperature to create a mesoporous layer. To reduce the manufacturing cost, we used Carbon black instead of Platinum (Pt) as a counter electrode. Carbon black provides excellent stability and shows high catalytic ability along with its low cost as the counter electrode in the DSSCs. Eight different dyes have been extracted and purified by Silica gel column chromatography to use in the DSSCs. UV-Visible absorption spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy has been done to measure the absorbance coefficient and fluorescence coefficient of each of the cells. The cells with an additional peak in the fluorescence spectra showed much better electrical performance compared with others. Among the fabricated DSSCs, the Curcuma longa based DSSC gives the highest open-circuit voltage of 0.5959 V and short circuit current density of 1.06 mA/cm2. The study also indicates that the dyes with a peak at 380 nm to 400 nm wavelength at fluorescence spectrum has better photovoltaic performance rather with a moderate absorbance spectrum.

Published in American Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems (Volume 9, Issue 4)
DOI 10.11648/j.epes.20200904.11
Page(s) 60-66
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell, Natural Dye, Counter Electrode, Column Chromatography, Absorbance Coefficient, Fluorescence

References
[1] "Dye-Sensitized vs. Thin Film Solar Cells", European Institute for Energy Research, 30 June 2006.
[2] Wang, Peng; Zakeeruddin, Shaik M.; Moser, Jacques E.; Nazeeruddin, Mohammad K.; Sekiguchi, Takashi; Grätzel, Michael (2003). "A stable quasi-solid-state dye-sensitized solar cell with an amphiphilic ruthenium sensitizer and polymer gel electrolyte". Nature Materials. 2 (6): 402-7.
[3] Gratzel, M (2003). "Dye-sensitized solar cells". Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology C: Photochemistry Reviews. 4 (2): 145–153.
[4] S. A. M Al-Bat’hi, I. Alaei, I. Sopyan, "Natural Photosensitizers for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells", Int. J. Renew. Energy Res., vol. 3, pp. 138-143, December 2012.
[5] B. O. Regan and M. Gratzel, “A low-cost high efficiency solar cell based on dye sensitized colloidal TiO2 films”, Nature, vol. 353, pp. 737-740, October 1991.
[6] Saptadip Saha, Priyanath Das, Ajoy Kumar Chakraborty, Sharmistha Sarkar, Ruchira Debbarma. “Fabrication of DSSC with Nanoporous TiO2 Film and Kenaf Hibiscus Dye as Sensitizer”, International journal of renewable energy research Vol. 6, No. 2, 2016.
[7] J. Wu, Z. Lan, J. Lin, M. Huang, Y. Huang, L. Fan, G. Luo, Y. Lin, Y. Xie, and Y. Wei, “Counter electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells,” Chemical Society Reviews, vol. 46, no. 19, pp. 5975-6023, 2017.
[8] Sharma, K., Sharma, V., & Sharma, S. S. (2018). Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells: Fundamentals and Current Status. Nanoscale Research Letters, 13 (1).
[9] Wang, Q; Campbell, Wm; Bonfantani, Ee; Jolley, Kw; Officer, Dl; Walsh, Pj; Gordon, K; Humphry-Baker, R; Nazeeruddin, Mk; Grätzel, M (2005). "Efficient light harvesting by using green Zn-porphyrin-sensitized nanocrystalline TiO2 films". The Journal of Physical Chemistry B. 109 (32): 15397-409.
[10] Kexin LI, Zhexun YU, Yanhong LUO, Dongmei LI, Qingbo MENG. Recent Progress of Counter Electrodes in Nanocrystalline Dye-sensitized Solar Cells. J Mater Sci Technol, 2007, 23 (05): 577-582.
[11] A. Kay, and M. Gratzel, "Low cost photovoltaic modules based on dye sensitized nanocrystalline titanium dioxide and carbon powder", Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells, Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 99-117 (1996).
[12] Park JT, Chi WS, Kim SJ, Lee D, Kim JH (2014) Mesoporous TiO2 Bragg Stack Templated by Graft Copolymer for Dye-sensitized Solar Cells. Sci Rep 4: 5505.
[13] Hee-Je Kim, Yeo-Tae Bin, S. N. Karthick, K. V. Hemalatha, C. Justin Raj, S. Venkatesan, Songyi Park, G. Vijayakumar, Natural dye extracted from Rhododendron species flowers as a photosensitizer in dye sensitized solar cell, Int. J. Electrochem. Sci. 8 (2013) 6734e6743.
[14] H. Chang, Y.-J. Lo, “Pomegranate leaves and mulberry fruits as natural sensitizers for Dye-sensitized solar cells,” Sol. Energy 84 (10) (2010) 1833e1837.
[15] Hatem S. El-Ghamri, Sofyan A. Taya, Taher M. El-Agez, Amal M. Al-Kahlout, Naji Al Dahoudi, Monzir S. Abdel-Latif, “Natural Dyes as Photosensitizers for Dye-sensitized Solar Cells”, Journal of Nano- and Electronic Physics, Vol. 7 No 3, 03001(6pp) (2015).
[16] Gokilamani N, Muthukumarasamy N, thambidurai M, Ranjitha A, Velauthapillai D, Senthil TS, Balasundaraprabhu R (2013) Dye-sensitized solar cells with natural dyes extracted from rose petals. J Mat Sci Mat Electron 24 (9).
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Afshana Afroj Bristi, S. M. Jahadun-Nobi, Md Nurul Abser, Md Mehadi Hassan. (2020). Performance Comparison of Cost Efficient Natural Dye Sensitized Solar Cell. American Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems, 9(4), 60-66. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.epes.20200904.11

    Copy | Download

    ACS Style

    Afshana Afroj Bristi; S. M. Jahadun-Nobi; Md Nurul Abser; Md Mehadi Hassan. Performance Comparison of Cost Efficient Natural Dye Sensitized Solar Cell. Am. J. Electr. Power Energy Syst. 2020, 9(4), 60-66. doi: 10.11648/j.epes.20200904.11

    Copy | Download

    AMA Style

    Afshana Afroj Bristi, S. M. Jahadun-Nobi, Md Nurul Abser, Md Mehadi Hassan. Performance Comparison of Cost Efficient Natural Dye Sensitized Solar Cell. Am J Electr Power Energy Syst. 2020;9(4):60-66. doi: 10.11648/j.epes.20200904.11

    Copy | Download

  • @article{10.11648/j.epes.20200904.11,
      author = {Afshana Afroj Bristi and S. M. Jahadun-Nobi and Md Nurul Abser and Md Mehadi Hassan},
      title = {Performance Comparison of Cost Efficient Natural Dye Sensitized Solar Cell},
      journal = {American Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems},
      volume = {9},
      number = {4},
      pages = {60-66},
      doi = {10.11648/j.epes.20200904.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.epes.20200904.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.epes.20200904.11},
      abstract = {Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) enticed the attention in photovoltaic design due to their unique features of ease of fabrication, low-cost materials, tunable color, and flexibility. In this work, we studied the performance of a low cost dye-sensitized solar cell structure with several natural dyes as a sensitizer. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) was used as the semiconducting layer. The TiO2 film was fabricated on Florine doped Tin Oxide (FTO) glass plate and was annealed and sintered for an hour at 450°C temperature to create a mesoporous layer. To reduce the manufacturing cost, we used Carbon black instead of Platinum (Pt) as a counter electrode. Carbon black provides excellent stability and shows high catalytic ability along with its low cost as the counter electrode in the DSSCs. Eight different dyes have been extracted and purified by Silica gel column chromatography to use in the DSSCs. UV-Visible absorption spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy has been done to measure the absorbance coefficient and fluorescence coefficient of each of the cells. The cells with an additional peak in the fluorescence spectra showed much better electrical performance compared with others. Among the fabricated DSSCs, the Curcuma longa based DSSC gives the highest open-circuit voltage of 0.5959 V and short circuit current density of 1.06 mA/cm2. The study also indicates that the dyes with a peak at 380 nm to 400 nm wavelength at fluorescence spectrum has better photovoltaic performance rather with a moderate absorbance spectrum.},
     year = {2020}
    }
    

    Copy | Download

  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Performance Comparison of Cost Efficient Natural Dye Sensitized Solar Cell
    AU  - Afshana Afroj Bristi
    AU  - S. M. Jahadun-Nobi
    AU  - Md Nurul Abser
    AU  - Md Mehadi Hassan
    Y1  - 2020/08/19
    PY  - 2020
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.epes.20200904.11
    DO  - 10.11648/j.epes.20200904.11
    T2  - American Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems
    JF  - American Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems
    JO  - American Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems
    SP  - 60
    EP  - 66
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2326-9200
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.epes.20200904.11
    AB  - Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) enticed the attention in photovoltaic design due to their unique features of ease of fabrication, low-cost materials, tunable color, and flexibility. In this work, we studied the performance of a low cost dye-sensitized solar cell structure with several natural dyes as a sensitizer. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) was used as the semiconducting layer. The TiO2 film was fabricated on Florine doped Tin Oxide (FTO) glass plate and was annealed and sintered for an hour at 450°C temperature to create a mesoporous layer. To reduce the manufacturing cost, we used Carbon black instead of Platinum (Pt) as a counter electrode. Carbon black provides excellent stability and shows high catalytic ability along with its low cost as the counter electrode in the DSSCs. Eight different dyes have been extracted and purified by Silica gel column chromatography to use in the DSSCs. UV-Visible absorption spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy has been done to measure the absorbance coefficient and fluorescence coefficient of each of the cells. The cells with an additional peak in the fluorescence spectra showed much better electrical performance compared with others. Among the fabricated DSSCs, the Curcuma longa based DSSC gives the highest open-circuit voltage of 0.5959 V and short circuit current density of 1.06 mA/cm2. The study also indicates that the dyes with a peak at 380 nm to 400 nm wavelength at fluorescence spectrum has better photovoltaic performance rather with a moderate absorbance spectrum.
    VL  - 9
    IS  - 4
    ER  - 

    Copy | Download

Author Information
  • Department of Chemistry, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh

  • Department of EEE, Noakhali Science and Technology University, Sonapur, Noakhali, Bangladesh

  • Department of Chemistry, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh

  • Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary, AB, Canada

  • Sections