Modification of Energy Band Gap in Natural Dye-Sensitized Tio2 Nano Particles

Abstract

The photovoltaic devices have been fabricated using conventional semiconductor materials such as silicon (Si) which are quite expensive and difficult to manufacture. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are attractive alternative to Si-based solar cells as they can be inexpensive, portable, thermally stable, light in weight and flexible. The pure TiO2 nano particles have been prepared by sol gel method for DSSC in this project. The anatase phase of TiO2 has been confirmed using XRD. Transmission Electron Microscopy has been used to the nano particle size of the TiO2 nano particles. The coating of natural dyes extracted from spinach and marry gold has been done on TiO2 nano particles. The Scanning Electron Microscope and EDX study reveals the morphology and elemental composition of the pure and natural dye coated TiO2 nano particles. Tauc’s Plots confirmed decrease in band gap with the natural dye coating. The natural dye coated nano particles are found to be better candidates for DSSCs.