Potential application of Ce doped NiO green synthesised from husk of Cocos nucifera in various types of DSSCs

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this study, a complete green synthesis procedure was approached to prepare two semiconductor oxide materials NiO and Ce-doped NiO in nanoscale, and natural dyes were extracted from the husk of tender coconut. To our knowledge, this is a novel work that reports Ce-doped NiO synthesized from husk of tender coconut. Coconut is being cultivated in more than 97 countries, and India contributes to 50% of its global production. After consumption of the nutritious liquid from the tender coconut, 33–35% of the fruit (mesocarp and endocarp) are being dumped as agro-wastes. In order to make capital of this wastes, they were utilized in fabricating different types of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). With the extracted natural dyes, and Rhodamine B, six DSSCs were made with NiO and Ce:NiO and two tandem structured DSSCs were devised with TiO2 as one layer and synthesized NiO materials being the other layer. Tandem cell made with TiO2 and Ce:NiO resulted in the promising power-conversion efficiency of 0.165% and the cell made with TiO2 and NiO exhibited an efficiency of 0.06%.