Using Various Solvents for Extracting Grape Juice as Dye and Applying It in Fabrications of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

Using grape juice as a natural dye source and employing a solvent extraction to isolate anthocyanins and subsequently harnessing them as sensitizers, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were fabricated in this study. The extraction process required diverse solvents, including tert-butanol, acetonitrile, acetone, and ethanol, with multiple adjustments and parameter optimizations to determine the most effective ratio in extraction. In the preparation of the photoanode, commercial titanium dioxide powder, which combined 20 mol% anatase phase and 80 mol% rutile phase, was utilized and applied through a doctor blade technique. The prepared photoanodes were immersed in the extracted anthocyanin dye and subjected to being exposed at various times to ensure complete light exclusion throughout the process. For electrode preparation, a platinum film approximately 1 nm thick was sputter-coated onto an indium tin oxide (ITO) glass substrate. The photoanodes treated in a dye-soaking process were then sealed with the electrodes. We measured incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency (IPCE) with ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-VIS) and a solar simulator to comprehensively assess the performance of the manufactured dye-sensitized solar cells.