Natural dyes extracted from leaves, fruits, and roots of Piper Betel, Adonidia Merrillii and Morinda Citrifolia as photosynthesizers for dye sensitized solar cells

Abstract

In this study, the fabrication of dye sensitized solar cell (DSSCs) using the leaves of Piper Betel (PB), fruits of Adonidia Merrillii (AM) and roots of Morinda Citrifolia (MC) and combination of these three dyes (PB/AM/MC) had been conducted. Fabrication of the DSSCs was conducted using layered system, which involved sandwiching of a working electrode (TiO2 semiconductor) and counter electrode (platinum paste) The chemical and electrochemical characteristic of natural dye extracts were determined using pH meter, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and ultra violet (UV-Vis) spectroscopy. From the study, it was observed that PB dyes showed the highest efficiencies (0.0712 %) followed by the combination dyes (0.0065 %) while AM and MC dyes showed the lowest efficiency (1.0×10-9% and 0% respectively.