Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were fabricated using anthocyanin dye and polymer electrolyte with ammonium iodide (NH4I) salt. The study was designed to focus on increasing the efficiency of the DSSC. DSSC using 26.9 wt. % chitosan-22 wt. % NH4I(+2.2 wt.% I2)-48.9 wt. % IL solid electrolyte, black rice anthocyanin with Pt counter electrode showedJscof 172 μA cm−2andVocof 195 mV. The performance of the cell with Pt electrode was further improved by coating a blocking layer on the indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate. The black rice DSSC using 11 wt. % (chitosan:PEO, wt. ratio 30:70)-9 wt. % NH4I-80 wt. % BMII gel electrolyte exhibitedJscof 1213 μA cm−2,Vocof 400 mV,FFof 0.47, andηof 0.23%. The red cabbage anthocyanin DSSC containing (phthaloyl chitosan-PEO)-NH4I-BMII gel electrolyte using tartaric acid to adjust the pH of anthocyanin solution showed the best performance with the fill factor of 0.39,Jscof 3503 μA cm−2,Vocof 340 mV, and an overall conversion efficiency of 0.46%.

Chitosan, a biopolymer derived from crab shells which is insoluble in common organic solvents has been converted to the organosoluble N-phthaloylchitosan (PhCh) by reaction with phthalic anhydride in dimethylformamide (DMF).

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Phthaloylchitosan-based gel polymer electrolytes were prepared with tetrapropylammonium iodide, Pr4NI, as the salt and optimized for conductivity. The electrolyte with the composition of 15.7 wt.% phthaloylchitosan, 31.7 wt.% ethylene carbonate (EC), 3.17 wt.% propylene carbonate (PC), 19.0 wt.% of Pr4NI, and 1.9 wt.% iodine exhibits the highest room temperature ionic conductivity of 5.27 × 10−3 S cm−1. The dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) fabricated with this electrolyte exhibits an efficiency of 3.5% withJSCof 7.38 mA cm−2,VOCof 0.72 V, and fill factor of 0.66. When various amounts of lithium iodide (LiI) were added to the optimized gel electrolyte, the overall conductivity is observed to decrease. However, the efficiency of the DSSC increases to a maximum value of 3.71% when salt ratio of Pr4NI : LiI is 2 : 1. This cell hasJSC,VOCand fill factor of 7.25 mA cm−2, 0.77 V and 0.67, respectively.