Influence of grey and color filters on the electrical properties of the dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

During the last decade, generating renewable energy has become more and more important, and so did solar cells. This led to a swift development of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The highest efficiencies are achieved by cells which use synthetic ruthenium-based dyes; however, DSSCs can also be prepared from low-purity and nontoxic materials. Extracting anthocyanins from, e.g., fruit or commercially available tea offers an economic and ecological alternative to toxic dyes, while the solar cell efficiency is significantly reduced. This article reports on the possibility of using anthocyanin-based DSSCs under ambient light, which was modified by different grey and color filters. Dyes were tailored by modifying the pH value of the dye solution. While generally the lowest pH values resulted in the highest efficiencies, the performance of all DSSCs depended strongly on the light spectrum, for some color filters even favoring the original dye solution without pH modification.