ZnO photoanode effect on the efficiency performance of organic based dye sensitized solar cell

Abstract

Dye sensitized solar cell has been emerged as one of the most promising candidates for photovoltaics applications in good quality of their low manufacturing cost and impressive conversion energy. Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) which is used as photoanode in the market has the advantage of wide bandgap energy but low in electron mobility (~10 cm² /(V.s)). Ruthenium in the other hand, as the dye sensitizer is a rare noble metal and harmful to human health. Thus, this article reveals the performance of photo-to-electric conversion efficiency with the usage of Zinc Oxide as photoanode with higher electron mobility (155 cm² /(V.s)) compared to TiO₂ utilizing three natural fruit dyes of Prunus domestica, Magnifera indica and Citrus limon. ZnO and TiO₂ photoanodes were fabricated using sol gel and dr blade method respectively. The morphology of the photoanodes were characterized using Scanning Electron Microscope and the efficiency of the complete DSSC with all different fruit dyes were characterized using Semiconductor Parametric Analyzer. The different property of electron mobility photoanodes effect in DSSC proved to give better performance with the photoconversion efficiency of 3.082% using ZnO with Prunus domestica dye. This article also reveals that pH indicator does not affect the selection and the performance of DSSC