Study on the Potential Reutilization of Dyes from Batik Textile Effluent as Dye Sensitizers in Dye Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC)

Abstract

An alternative method for waste dyes management by reutilization as dye sensitizer of DSSC is introduced in this study. The waste dye based DSSCs are fabricated by using wastewater that is collected from fixing process, dewaxing process and effluent of batik industry using the standard fabrication method. Absorption spectra, band gap, dyes concentration, pH value as well as functional group are the important characteristics of photosensitizer that is being studied in this research. Among the processes, the DSSC that was fabricated from waste dyes produced from dewaxing process had the highest energy conversion efficiency (5.68 × 10–8%) due to its highest dye concentration. However, further study is required to improve the performance of waste dye based DSSC since its energy conversion efficiency is extremely poor compared to the current highest efficiency of 13% and undesirable in being applied in real life.