Combination of Dragon Fruit, Hibiscus and Bitterleaf as Dye Sensitizer to Increase Efficiency of DSSC

Abstract

Dye-sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC) from natural products was being prominently developed in recent years. The main advantage of DSSC was its fabrication which did not require high process technology, so the production cost was lower than solar cells from crystalline materials. There were important materials in Dye-sensitized Solar Cell technology, such as: Zinc Oxide as an electrode, electrolyte solution and plant pigments as dye sensitizer to absorb light energy and convert it into a source of electrical energy. In this study, the combination of multiple dye mixture had been investigated to achieve high external quantum efficiency as sensitizers. Furthermore, each sample would be tested to determine the characteristics of natural dye and to calculate the power flow and efficiency of the electricity generated by each variable of dye solution. There would be four variables in this study, which was the composition (% v/v) of the three main sources of natural dyes; hibiscus, bitter leaf and dragon fruit, respectively first (50% : 25% :25%), second (25% : 50% : 25%), third (25% : 25% : 50%) and fourth (33,33% : 33,33% : 33,33%). The result of the study showed that efficiency of variable 1 to 4 was 1.9076%, 2.8739%, 0.8566% and 0.8344%, respectively