Natural Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (NDSSCs) From Opuntia Prickly Pear Dye Using ZnO Doped TiO2 Nanoparticles by Sol- Gel Method

Natural dye-sensitized solar cells (NDSSCs) have gained considerable attention in the field of solar energy due to their simple fabrication, good efficiency, and low production cost. Natural dyes are environmentally and economically superior to ruthenium-based dyes because they are nontoxic and cheap. However, the conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells based on natural dyes is low. One way to improve the DSSC performance is to enhance the absorptivity of extracted natural dyes. We investigated the influence of various factors in the extraction process, such as utilization of different extraction approaches, the acidity of extraction solvent, and different compounds of solvents on the optical absorption spectra. It was found that we could considerably enhance the optical absorptivity of dye and consequently the performance of DSSC by choosing a proper mixture of ethanol, methanol and water. In this study, a photo electrode using ZnO doped TiO2 nanoparticles was prepared by sol-gel method. In this paper we investigate the optical absorption, functional group, surface morphology and elementary composition of pure TiO2, ZnO doped TiO2 nanoparticles and opuntia prickly pear dye extract by using UV-Visible, PL-Studies, FT-IR, FE-SEM and EDS analysis. Finally photocurrent-voltaic characterization of nanocrystaline natural dye solar cell using I-V studies. It was found that the levels of shortcircuit current (Jsc), open-circuit voltage (Voc), fill factor (FF) and overall conversion efficiency (η).