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Synergetic impact of natural light harvesting materials to reduce the recombination rate and improve the device performance of dye sensitized solar cells

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Abstract

Natural pigments extracted from Arachis hypogaea flowers and Cassia grandis leaves were used as novel light harvesting materials for the first time in the fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The extracted individual dyes were labelled as AH, CG and the mixture as AC. The absorption spectra confirmed xanthophyll and chlorophyll pigments in AH, CG and AC with the bandgap of 2.64 eV, 2.7 eV, 2.62 eV. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was employed to identify the functional groups present in the dyes. The microstructure, homogeneity, porosity, compositional analysis and roughness of bare and dye loaded TiO2 films were examined using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDAX) and Atomic force microscopy (AFM). The photovoltaic performance was evaluated through Current–voltage characteristics (J–V), Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis (EIS) and Bode phase plot analysis. The findings revealed that DSSC with co-sensitized dye (AC) exhibited Voc of 533 mV, Jsc of 0.42 mA cm−2 and FF of 0.29 with an improved efficiency that was 1.4 and 2.11 times greater than AH and CG dye based devices respectively. The results proved co-sensitization to be an effective approach to increasing the spectral range and device performance of dye sensitized solar cells.

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Funding

The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, St. Joseph’s College (Autonomous), Affiliated to Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, 620002, India

    Amutha Soosairaj & Leo Rajesh Asirvatham

  2. Departamento de Mecanica, Facultad de Ingenieria, Universidad Technologica Metropolitana, Santiago, Chile

    Durga Prasad Pabba

  3. Nanomaterials and Solar Energy Conversion Lab, Department of Chemistry, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, 620 015, India

    Ahalya Gunasekaran & Sambandam Anandan

  4. Department of Chemistry, St. Joseph’s College (Autonomous), Affiliated to Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, 620002, India

    Joseph Selvaraj

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  1. Amutha Soosairaj
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  3. Ahalya Gunasekaran
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  4. Sambandam Anandan
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by AS and LRA. The first draft of the manuscript was written by AS and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Leo Rajesh Asirvatham.

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Soosairaj, A., Pabba, D.P., Gunasekaran, A. et al. Synergetic impact of natural light harvesting materials to reduce the recombination rate and improve the device performance of dye sensitized solar cells. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 34, 1748 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-023-11172-5

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