Abstract
Diatoms exhibit high solar energy harvesting efficiency due to their remarkably organized, hierarchical micro/nanoporous, light-trapping, and scattering frustules. At present, few studies focus on cosensitization of natural near-infrared dye to expand the spectral response of dye-sensitized solar cells. In this study, the diatom frustule-TiO2 (12 : 5) composite film was prepared and assembled it on the TiO2 electrode. Compared to the single TiO2 layer film, diatom frustule-TiO2 (12 : 5) composite film sensitized by diatom’s dye showed the conversion efficiency of 0.719%. To expand the light-harvesting response to near-infrared region spectra, the cosensitized dyes were used to fabricate the visible-near-infrared responsive dye-sensitized solar cells. The cosensitization diatom frustule-TiO2 (12 : 5) composite film exhibited two distinct absorption bands in the near-infrared region and reached a higher conversion efficiency of 1.321%, which was approximately 1.4 or 1.7 folds higher than that of cosensitization double-TiO2 film or single TiO2 layer film, respectively, and approximately 3.7 or 1.7 folds higher than that of the single TiO2 layer film sensitized by diatom dye or purple bacterial dye, respectively. The results showed that the combination between diatom frustule-TiO2 with cosensitization natural dyes could significantly improve the photoelectric performance of visible-near-infrared responsive dye-sensitized solar cells.
Highlights
Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) have attracted considerable attention due to their ease of fabrication, low production costs, and architectural and environmental compatibility compared to silicon-based solar cells [1,2,3,4]
To the best of our knowledge, up to 50% of solar spectra are larger than 700 nm, which are located in the range of the infrared radiation [11]; the absorption maxima in most of the synthetic or natural dyes in DSSC are within 700 nm [10], and their conversion efficiency in the available DSSCs may be compromised due to limited sunlight absorption of dyes
Is work highlighted the trends in using the biomolecular photosensitizers with Vis-NIR absorbance or spectral complementary cosensitization characteristics for the dyesensitized solar cell and demonstrated that natural pigment extracts from diatom and purple bacteria and diatom frustules have the potential to be used as materials for fabricating low-cost and eco-friendly dye-sensitized solar cells
Summary
Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) have attracted considerable attention due to their ease of fabrication, low production costs, and architectural and environmental compatibility compared to silicon-based solar cells [1,2,3,4]. The dyes used in DSSC mainly fous on synthetic dyes and some plant natural dyes. Synthetic dyes such as N719 and N3 ruthenium are capable of yielding higher conversion efficiencies [5,6,7]. Their fabrication is complicated, and some are toxic [8]. Available, cost-effective, and eco-friendly [9, 10]; the conversion efficiency of DSSC was yet to be improved. To the best of our knowledge, up to 50% of solar spectra are larger than 700 nm, which are located in the range of the infrared radiation [11]; the absorption maxima in most of the synthetic or natural dyes in DSSC are within 700 nm [10], and their conversion efficiency in the available DSSCs may be compromised due to limited sunlight absorption of dyes
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