The development of dye sensitizer is growing in line with the increasing demand for renewable energy. A research to obtain a dye sensitizer that is economical, safe, and produces a great value of DSSC efficiency is a challenge unresolved. On the other hand, the efforts for waste reduction are also intensively conducted to create better environment. In this paper, the variation of synthetic dye wastes from batik industries have been successfully applied as dye sensitizer and fabricated on DSSC cells. Congo red (1.0133%) yielded higher efficiency than rhodamine B (0.0126%), methyl orange (0.7560%), and naphthol blue black (0.0083%). The divergence of the efficiency of DSSC is very dependent upon the chromophore group owned by dye. This study has proven that the more chromophore group possessed by dye, the higher the efficiency of DSSC generated. This research concludes that the dye wastes have a bright future to be implemented as dye sensitizer on solar cells.

AbstractThe demands of ecofriendly technologies to produce a reliable supply of renewable energy on a large scale remains a challenge. A solar cell based on DSSC (Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell) technology is environmentally friendly and holds the promise of a high efficiency in converting sunlight into electricity. This manuscript describes the development of a light harvester system as a main part of a DSSC. Congo red dye has been functionalized with metals (Fe, Co, Ni), forming a series of complexes that serve as a novel light harvester on the solar cell. Metal-congo red complexes have been characterized by UV-VIS and FTIR spectroscopy, and elemental analyses. The performance of metal complexes in capturing photons from sunlight has been investigated in a solar cell device. The incorporation of metals to congo red successfully improved of the congo red efficiency as follows: Fe(II)-congo red, Co(II)-congo red and Ni(II)-congo red had efficiencies of 8.17%, 6.13% and 2.65%, respectively. This research also discusses the effect of metal ions on the ability of congo red to capture energy from sunlight.

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The purpose of this research is to modify methyl orange be a complex compound Fe (II) -methyl orange and apply it as a light harvester on DSSC (Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell) technology. Titanium dioxide was used as a semiconductor and synthesized from tetrabuthylorthotitanate (TBOT). The wavelength spectra of Fe (II)-methyl orange was characterized by UV-Vis spectrophotometer and showed d-d transition at 420.50 nm and charge transfer at 262 nm. The interaction of metal-ligand bonding (Fe–N) was characterized by FTIR spectrophotometer and shown at wavenumber 316.33 cm−1. Fe(II)-methyl orange was a paramagnetic compound with magnetic moment 3.9 BM and ionic compound because of its conductivity higher than its solvent. The photovoltaic analysis confirmed that Fe(II)-methyl orange produced a current of 40 mA, a voltage of 0.38 V and an efficiency of 0.24%.