Performance Degradation Model of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC) Using Dye Extracted from Red Dragon Fruit’s Flesh

Abstract

This paper reports on the fabrication and characterization of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) which utilizes dye extracted from local red dragon fruit’s flesh. The DSSC was hand-made using doctor blade method on single-sided ITO-coated TCO glass with iodine solution as the liquid charge transporter and dye infiltrated mesoporous layer made from paste of TiO2 nanoparticles powder and acetic acid. The fabricated samples were tested using an own-made solar simulator with 85 W 12 V halogen light source and measured for I-V curve using a home-made Arduino-based automated I-V measurement tool. The experiments gave best results for DSSC which used a paste composed of 1 gr of TiO2 nanoparticle powder and 3.2 ml of 15% acetic acid soaked in dye for 90 mins. The results show that a cell of 21 mm x 21 mm has open circuit voltage (V oc) of 459.28 mV, short circuit current (I sc) of 10.14μA, fill factor (FF) of 55.39% and conversion efficiency (η) at maximum power point (MPP) of 0.0088% at 30 minutes post assembling under exposure to 66.7 W/m2 irradiation. The DSSC degraded over time and fitted well to a two-parameter model equation. Compared to similar cell fabricated using dye taken from blackberry fruit, which exhibited η = 0.0133%, the cell with dye of red dragon fruit’s performance is worse.