Performance evaluation and characterization of fabricated silver nitrate doped DSSC sensitized with dye extracted from Corchorus olitorius L

Abstract

This study concentrates on the conventional dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC). This type of solar cell is generally made from components such as photo anode support, photo sensitizer (dye), electrolyte and counter electrode. This research investigates the properties of the photosensitizer which was locally sourced from our environment, was analyzed. The effect of the dopant on the absorbance spectrum of the chlorophyll based dye was also studied. The optical properties of the natural dyes showed that the dye-sensitized material exhibits an intense absorption broad band of 620-720 nm in the visible light region indicating the absorption of red light from the photons with a more prominent peak 659 nm. The structural characterization of the film was investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) and x-ray diffraction (XRD). The solar cells were finally prepared by sandwiching the TiO₂ photoanode with the counter electrode. The electrical properties of the fabricated solar call was analyzed by the use of a solar simulator which resulted to an efficiency of 0.05 %.This was calculated from the experimental values of short circuit current (I_sc), open circuit current voltage (V_oc), fill factor (ff) as 0.389 V, 0.242 mAcm^-2 and 0.48 respectively.