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Mangosteen peel is an inedible portion of a fruit. We are interested in using these residues as components of a dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC). Carbonized mangosteen peel was used with mangosteen peel dye as a natural counter electrode and a natural photosensitizer, respectively. A distinctive mesoporous honeycomb-like carbon structure with a rough nanoscale surface was found in carbonized mangosteen peels. The efficiency of a dye sensitized solar cell using carbonized mangosteen peel was compared to that of DSSCs with Pt and PEDOT-PSS counter electrodes. The highest solar conversion efficiency (2.63%) was obtained when using carbonized mangosteen peel and an organic disulfide/thiolate (T2/T−) electrolyte.

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A PEDOT-based dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) is successfully improved by coupling photoelectrochemically deposited PEDOT layer with an Ag paste-paint on the cathode. With a 9.3 μm thick mesoscopic nanocrystalline TiO(2) film, a maximum cell performance of 3.2% with relatively high V(oc) of around 780 mV is achieved.

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Polypyrrole films were coated on conductive glass by electrochemical deposition (alternative current or direct current process). They were then used as the dye-sensitized solar cell counter electrodes. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that polypyrrole forms a nanoparticle-like structure on the conductive glass. The amount of deposited polypyrrole (or film thickness) increased with the deposition duration, and the performance of polypyrrole based-dye-sensitized solar cells is dependant upon polymer thickness. The highest efficiency of alternative current and direct current polypyrrole based-dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) is 4.72% and 4.02%, respectively. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy suggests that the superior performance of alternative current polypyrrole solar cells is due to their lower charge-transfer resistance between counter electrode and electrolyte. The large charge-transfer resistance of direct current solar cells is attributed to the formation of unbounded polypyrrole chains minimizing theI3 −reduction rate.