application of green walnut shell as a novel pigment in dssc based on tio2 nanoparticles.

natural dye extract of walnut shell, was extracted using an ultrasonic processor and purified by hot saponification method, has been studied as a novel sensitizing dye to fabricate tio2 nanoparticles based dye sensitized solar cells (dssc). the extract was characterized using uv–vis absorption spectroscopy and fourier transform infrared (ftir) employed to identify the anchoring groups in walnut shell pigment. the typical current-voltage and the incident photon to current efficiency (ipce) curves were also provided and analysed for studying the photovoltaic properties. the walnut shell extract exhibited a short circuit current density (jsc) of 0.939 ma/cm2, open-circuit voltage (voc) of 0.792 v, fill factor (ff) of 0.71 and conversion efficiency of 0.528% under standard test conditions. these are fairly good in comparison with the other similar cells. the improvement in efficiency is mainly due to the correct and good extraction and purification method and also due to the structure of walnut shell pigments that enhanced the charge transfer between the dye extract of walnut shell and the tio2 photo anode surface. however, such efficiency is still a lot needs to be improved to compete with the existing cells. this shows the need for extensive research in this area of research.