Butea monosperma, crown of thorns, red lantana camara and royal poinciana flowers extract as natural dyes for dye sensitized solar cells with improved efficiency

The cost-effective and eco-friendly natural dyes are sustainable alternatives to synthetically prepared ruthenium-based dyes. This study aims to explore the effect of natural dyes extracted from four different flowers on improving solar cell efficiency. The natural dyes are extracted from butea mono...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Electrochimica acta 2023-02, Vol.441, p.141793, Article 141793
Main Authors: Yadav, Subhash Chand, Tiwari, Manish Kumar, Kanwade, Archana, Lee, Hyunju, Ogura, Atsushi, Shirage, Parasharam M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Butea monosperma flower
Crown of thorns flower
Dye-sensitized
Natural dye
Red lantana camara flower
Royal poinciana flower
Solar cell
TiO2 nanorods
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Summary:The cost-effective and eco-friendly natural dyes are sustainable alternatives to synthetically prepared ruthenium-based dyes. This study aims to explore the effect of natural dyes extracted from four different flowers on improving solar cell efficiency. The natural dyes are extracted from butea monosperma (BM), crown of thorns (CT), red lantana camara (RL) and royal poinciana flowers (RP). The dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were constructed using TiO2 nanorods (NRs) and light-harvesting natural dyes. Highly ordered and vertically oriented TiO2 NRs arrays were synthesized on FTO substrate and used as photoanode to fabricate natural dye based DSSCs. TiO2 NRs facilitate the infiltration of the liquid-state electrolyte and good binding with dye molecules; their one-dimensional structural feature provides effective charge transport. A significant improvement in the photo conversion efficiency (PCE) of TiO2 NRs sensitized and light-harvesting natural dye-based DSSCs has been observed. The structural, morphological, and optical properties of the TiO2 photoanode as well as the optical properties of the extracted dyes were studied using characterization techniques. The PCE of DSSCs based on natural dye extracts from BM, CT, RL and RP flowers were observed to be 2.89%, 1.20%, 1.02% and 0.72%, respectively. This work reports the highest PCE (2.89%) to date for DSSC fabricated using BM flower-based natural dyes; therefore, it can be a sustainable alternative to synthetic dyes. [Display omitted]
ISSN:0013-4686
1873-3859
DOI:10.1016/j.electacta.2022.141793