Application and Characterization of Blueberry Fruit Pigment as the Photosensitizer for High Performance and Stable Natural Dye Sensitized Solid Solar Cells

Abstract

The natural dye pigment of blueberry was extracted from its peals using our own acetonitrile assisted method and used in a liquid electrolyte free natural dye sensitized solid solar cell (NDSSSC) which exhibited he highest efficiency (ɳ) of 1.7% and short circuit current density (Jsc = 11 mA/cm2) for the blueberry dye sensitized any type of solar cell. Natural dyes are always inexpensive, nontoxic and reliable sources that can be used in photovoltaic application as a cheap alternative for commercial expensive synthetic dyes. The typical problems of stability of natural pigments and the unreliability, expensiveness and the toxicity of the iodide / tri-iodide electrolyte were addressed by introducing a deposition of p-CuI on dye incorporated nanoporous TiO2 films from a solution containing a crystal growth inhibitor Triethylammine Hydrothiocyanate (THT) by drop casting method in order to make a NDSSSC. I-V characteristics and impedance measurements were carried out to investigate the photovoltaic performance and further characterized by UV-Visible spectroscopy, FTIR spectroscopy and SEM. Stability measurements were carried out for a period of 30 days and promisingly showed a good stability