Performance and Hydroponic Tomato Crop Quality Characteristics in a Novel Greenhouse Using Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Technology for Covering Material

Abstract

In this study, we evaluated crop productivity and physiology during the hydroponic cultivation of medium-sized and cherry tomato crops, using two experimental greenhouses. Of the greenhouses, one used dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) technology for covering material, whilst the other, a conventional one (CONV), was covered using diffusion glass as a control. The effect of the colored lighting that resulted from the DSSC glass filtering on the physiological response of the crops was examined by measuring the plant transpiration rate and leaf chlorophyll content. Furthermore, we evaluated potential differences in the concentration of phytochemical compounds, such as ascorbic acid, lycopene, and quality characteristics. Tomato plants in the DSSC greenhouse presented lower early and total yields, as well as lower chlorophyll content, stomatal conductance, photosynthetic rate, and transpiration rate values, especially in the medium-sized fruits, as compared to the CONV greenhouse. The DSSC greenhouse showed significantly higher values of bioactive compounds for both the cherry and medium-sized tomato, with increases in the ascorbic acid, lycopene, β-carotene, and total carotenoids concentration, which ranged from 6% to 26%. Finally, for both the hybrids, the 2,2′-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (ABTS) and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) tests showed circa 10% and 5% increase, respectively, in the DSSC greenhouse.

D–A–π–A organic dyes with tailored green light absorption for potential application in greenhouse-integrated dye-sensitized solar cells

“…11,12 New generation photovoltaics such as organic solar cells (OSCs) [13][14][15] or dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) 16,17 might be a valid alternative to overcome this drawback. 18,19 The latter, in particular, can represent an ideal solution because they can be layered on glass or plastic, giving coloured, lightweight and transparent devices, 20,21 able to work under a wide array of lighting conditions, without suffering from angular dependence of incident light. 22 A DSSC is an electrochemical device that uses dye molecules adsorbed on a nanocrystalline semiconductor (generally TiO 2 ) to harvest sunlight and generate electricity.…”

Produtividade de híbridos de tomate cultivados em aquaponia associada em sistema tipo floating

“…O cultivo aquapônico é considerado uma das formas mais sustentáveis de produção do século XXI (Oladimeji et al, 2020), apresentado diversos benefícios ambientais, como: reutilização de água residuária (Li et al, 2019;Oladimeji et al, 2020); baixa reposição de água no sistema (Mauricieri et al, 2018); baixo ou até ausência de uso de inseticidas e fungicidas (Vallance et al, 2011); além da questão socioeconômica, uma vez que proporciona duas fontes de renda para os produtores, uma proveniente da produção de peixe e, outra, do cultivo de plantas (Sunny et al, 2019). Além disso, o produto comercial de origem vegetal (folhas ou frutos), geralmente, apresenta qualidade maior ou igual em relação aos provenientes de técnicas de cultivo convencionais, no solo (Ntinas et al, 2019;Suhl et al, 2016;Yang & Kim, 2020).…”

Investigation of UV Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Based on Water Electrolyte: A New Insight for Wavelength-Selective Greenhouse

“…In recent years, this limited objective has been extended to the advantages over the widely used Si-based solar cell, including higher energy conversion efficiency under weak and indirect illumination conditions. These advantages can compensate for the weaknesses of Sibased solar cells and together with the simple manufacturing process, low fabrication cost, flexibility in scaling, low material usage [3][4][5], and low light level sensitivity, but mainly the variation in color and transparency of the photoanode together with that of the counter electrode [6,7], are essential characteristics that could make these cells the ideal candidate for greenhouse application [8,9].…”