Performance Analysis of Mixed Natural Dye and Nanostructured Tio2 based DSSC

Abstract

The performance of the mixed natural dye based DSSC has been evaluated in this paper. The mixture of beet root, spinach and turmeric are used with nanostructured TiO2 are used for the fabrication of DSSC. TiO2 is synthesized by sol-gel technique and considered as semiconductor metal oxide (SMO) to act as photo anode here. Nano wire type of morphology of TiO2 is found from the FESEM image which exhibits unidirectional and uniform electron flow. The XRD study reveals anatase and rutile phases of TiO2 that ensure the stability of synthesized TiO2. The mixed dye made of beet root, spinach and turmeric shows their congruent characteristics with the broad light absorption spectra, lower diffused reflectance spectra after anchoring with SMO and better I-V characteristics in comparison with the individual one. The mixed dye-based DSSC provides the open-circuit voltage of 0.755V, short circuit current of 2.05mA, voltage and current at maximum power equal to 0.51V and 1.7mA, respectively with the efficiency of 0.867 %, in comparison to the efficiency of the individual dyes 0.305%, 0.266% and 0.473% with beet root, spinach and turmeric, respectively.