Natural Pigment-Based Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe performance of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) based on natural dyes extracted from five different sources isreported. These are inexpensive, have no nutritional use, and are easy to find in Mexico. The solar cells wereassembled using a thin film and a TiO2 mesoporous film on ITO-coated glass; these films were characterized byFTIR. The extracts were characterized using UV–Vis and typical I-V curves were obtained for the cells. The bestperformance was for Punica Granatum with a solar energy conversion efficiency of 1.86%, with a current density Jscof 3.341 mA/cm2 using an incident irradiation of 100 mW/cm2 at 25 ºC.