A Simplest, Cheapest and Most Efficienct Technique to Enhance the Performance of Solid State Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell: Deposition of Purple Seaweed as a Photosensitizer

Abstract

Solid state dye-sensitized solar cell (ss-DSSC) was developed to overcome the problem arise from electrolyte leakage in liquid state dye-sensitized solar cell. This work focused on the fabrication of ss-DSSC based on inorganic semiconductor of titania and organic conducting polymer of poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and natural dyes from purple seaweed (PS dyes) via electrochemical, spin coating and dip coating method, respectively. The absorption spectrum and functional group of PS dyes were investigated using UV-Visible absorption spectroscopy and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy; respectively. Meanwhile, the effect of immersion time of PS dyes on performance of the device was studied via current density-voltage (J-V) characteristic. PS dye was absorbed in a wide range of solar spectrum in visible and near-IR region by chlorophyll a, phycocyanin and zeaxanthin pigments exists in the PS dyes. The present of carboxylic groups in PS dyes which bound to P3HT and formed P3HT-COOH enable the linkage to TiO2 surface which helps in the transfer of electrons from natural dyes to the conduction band of TiO2 film. The highest efficiency obtained was 1.44% at 10 minutes time of immersion. This concludes that PS dyes was a good photosensitizer and can be applied in ss-DSSC.