Proceedings of 6th International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV14)
Publication date: 1st March 2014
In the last decade the development of new materials has contributed markedly to improve the efficiency-cost ratio of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC)1. Semiconductor quantum dots and earth abundant materials2, gel and solid electrolyte3, non-conventional catalysts4 and synthetic dyes without ruthenium have been the focus of study. With respect to the last, lanthanides, porphyrins and phthalocyanines5 have presented good properties but these compounds have the disadvantage of being complicated to synthesize and very expensive, as ruthenium complexes does. These limitations have stimulated many researchers around world to utilize natural dyes as sensitizers6, 7.Organic molecules such as anthocyanins, carotenoids and chlorophylls principally compose theses dyes. Anthocyanins have shown the best interaction with the most popular semiconductors (TiO2 and ZnO) used in DSSC8. The presence of these molecules at different pH values gives to dye varieties of color, high molar extinction coefficient and chemical stability in some cases9. For this reason, the application of natural dyes extracted from annatto seeds (Bixa orellana), peels of beetroot (beta vulgaris) and wild bilberry (vaccinium meridionale swartz) is studied to fabricate DSSC. Extraction of dyes was optimized at 37ºC in a polar media. After extraction, all obtained dyes were exposed under outdoors and artificial conditions (UV Chamber) in the order to evaluate the stability. The more stable dyes and the ones with highest concentration of anthocyanin (Cyanindin-3-glucoside) were evaluated individually and blended with a ruthenium complex (N3). Annatto dye showed superior stability in each exposition media, as well as, the higher oxidation potential (0.80V). The fabricated solar cell made by annatto/N3 cocktail showed cosensitization effect and can be comparable to the results obtained for 100% synthetic dye. Efficiency values between 1.00% and 4.10% were obtained.
Normalized efficiency of fabricated DSSC. C1(100% N3), C2(10% Annatto dye), C3(20% Annatto dye) and C4(100% Annatto dye).
1. Hagfeldt, A.; Boschloo, G.; Sun, L.; Kloo, L.; Pettersson, H., Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells. Chemical Reviews 2010, 110, 6595-6663. 2. Liyuan, H.; Atsushi, F.; Nobuhiro, F.; Naoki, K.; Ryohsuke, Y. In High Efficiency of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell and Module, Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, Conference Record of the 2006 IEEE 4th World Conference on, May 2006; 2006; pp 179-182. 3. Senadeera, G. K. R.; de Silva, N., Efficient quasi-solid dye sensitized solar cells employing molten salt electrolyte. 2008; Vol. 7. 4. Hou, Y.; Wang, D.; Yang, X. H.; Fang, W. Q.; Zhang, B.; Wang, H. F.; Lu, G. Z.; Hu, P.; Zhao, H. J.; Yang, H. G., Rational screening low-cost counter electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells. Nat Commun 2013, 4, 1583. 5. Bessho, T.; Zakeeruddin, S. M.; Yeh, C.-Y.; Diau, E. W.-G.; Grätzel, M., Highly Efficient Mesoscopic Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Based on Donor–Acceptor-Substituted Porphyrins. Angewandte Chemie 2010, 122, 6796-6799. 6. Hug, H.; Bader, M.; Mair, P.; Glatzel, T., Biophotovoltaics: Natural pigments in dye-sensitized solar cells. Applied Energy 2014, 115, 216-225. 7. Zhou, H.; Wu, L.; Gao, Y.; Ma, T., Dye-sensitized solar cells using 20 natural dyes as sensitizers. Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A: Chemistry 2011, 219, 188-194. 8. Hao, S.; Wu, J.; Huang, Y.; Lin, J., Natural dyes as photosensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cell. Solar Energy 2006, 80, 209-214. 9. Garzón, G. A.; Narváez, C. E.; Riedl, K. M.; Schwartz, S. J., Chemical composition, anthocyanins, non-anthocyanin phenolics and antioxidant activity of wild bilberry (Vaccinium meridionale Swartz) from Colombia. Food Chemistry 2010, 122, 980-986
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