Fabrication of Solar Cells with TiO2 Nanoparticles Sensitized using Natural Dye Extracted from Mangosteen Pericarps

Abstract

With the increasingly shrinking reserves of fossil-based energy, as well as the damaging effects of the use of fossil-based energy sources such as the greenhouse effect and global warming, efforts are needed to find energy alternatives. One device being developed as an alternative source of renewable energy by utilizing solar energy source is dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) that works using simple photosynthetic-electrochemical principle in the molecular level. In this device, the inorganic oxide semiconductors such as TiO2 has a great potential for the absorption of the photon energy from the solar, especially in the form of TiO2 nanoparticle structure. In this study, a commercial TiO2 nanoparticle was used. The asreceived TiO2 nanoparticle was characterized using X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). For sensitizer, natural dye extracted from mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.) pericarps was used. The extracted natural dye was characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) for the functional groups, whereas the ultra violet-visible (UV-Vis) was used to examined the absorption activity of the extracted natural dye. The performance of DSSC was analyzed through a precision current versus potential different (I-V) curve analyzer. The maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the mangosteen natural dye was given by yhe one extracted using ethanol containing 20% distilled water as compared to the commercial organic dye with PCE of 4.02%. This result is convincing and promising for the next development.

Synthesis of TiO2nanoparticles at low hydrothermal temperature and its performance for DSSC sensitized using natural dye extracted fromMelastoma malabathricumL. seeds

“…In terms of the sensitizing dye, the finding agrees with other results in which the PCE of the DSSC device sensitized using the dye extracted using ethanol containing 20% distilled water is higher than that of pure ethanol. The current PCE is also higher than the PCE obtained by Singh et al Although the difference is yet to be further confirmed, it is expected that the difference in the process during the extraction could result in the difference in the obtained dye.…”

Characteristics of Carbon Pyrolyzed from Table Sugar and Sucrose for Pt-less DSSC Counter Electrode

“…Details of the data are presented in Table 3. As a comparison, the results of a DSSC device using platinum paste as a counter electrode (Sofyan et al, 2017) are also presented in this table.…”

The Influence of Plasmonic Au Nanoparticle Integration on the Optical Bandgap of Anatase TiO2 Nanoparticles

“…Over the past decades, nano-sized titanium dioxide (TiO2) has been widely considered as one of the most photoactive materials for catalysis in various photocatalytic reactions, due to its chemical stability, low toxicity and corrosion resistance (Low et al, 2017). Studies have shown that multiple forms of TiO2 nanostructures have been extensively used as photocatalytic material in photo-induced solar fuel generation, such as CO2 reduction and water splitting, photo oxidation of pollutants in wastewater remediation, and photovoltaic devices (Ayati et al, 2014;Clavero, 2014;Tahir & Amin, 2015;Sofyan et al, 2017). Unfortunately, the large TiO2 bandgap (~3.2 eV) often limits its application in the development of solar-driven photocatalytic reactions, as it only absorbs in the ultraviolet (UV) region (Dette et al, 2014).…”