Chlorophyll Pigments as Nature Based Dye for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC)

Abstract

Dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) was assembled using natural dyes from chlorophyll extracted from spinach as a sensitizer. In this work, the adsorption characteristic has been studied in harvesting sunlight using different solvents. The effect of solvents has been investigated by analyzing the absorption spectrum, bandgap and absorption coefficient of the dyes. From the UV-Vis absorption spectrum, it has been known that chlorophyll extracted with distilled water has the broader region of the visible light spectrum in the range of 400 to 720 nm compared to chlorophyll extracted with ethanol. The lowest bandgap of dye also presented by extracted the chlorophyll with distilled water with 1.83 eV and the absorption coefficient of 1.59 km-1. The photo electrochemical parameter for solar cell by using chlorophyll extracted with DI water solvent showed the open circuit voltage (Voc) of 440 mV, current short circuit (Isc) of 0.35 mA and a fill factor (FF) of 0.49.