Pre dye treated titanium dioxide nano particles sensitized by natural dye extracts of Pterocarpus marsupium for dye sensitized solar cells

Abstract

A dye sensitized solar cell was fabricated using titanium dioxide nano particles sensitized by a new natural dye extracted from Pterocarpus marsupium stem bark. The natural dye extract contains xanthophyll as major pigment and used to sensitize the pure titanium dioxide nano particles synthesized by sol–gel technique. Pre dye treated titanium dioxide nano particles were prepared by modified sol–gel method of mixing the natural dye during synthesis itself which has merits, like uniform adsorption of natural dye, reduced agglomeration, less dye aggregation, improved morphology etc. The pure and pre dye treated titanium dioxide nano particles were subjected to structural, optical, functional group, compositional and morphological studies. The dye sensitized solar cells were fabricated using pre dye treated and conventionally prepared titanium dioxide based photo anodes which showed promising solar light energy to electron conversion efficiency of 0.49% and 1.05% respectively. The pre dye treatment is a promising method to achieve improvement in efficiency.