Asitha Malikaramge
University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
Title: Application and characterization of blueberry fruit pigment as photosensitizer for high performance and stable natural dye sensitized solid state solar cells
Biography
Biography: Asitha Malikaramge
Abstract
The natural dye pigment of blueberry was extracted from its peals using acetonitrile as solvent. This dye was used in a liquid electrolyte-free, natural dye-sensitized solid solar cell (NDSSSC). Natural dyes are inexpensive, non-toxic and are reliable and redily available sources of dyes. However, the typical problem associated with them is their instability towards iodide/tri-iodide electrolyte. This was addressed by introducing p-CuI as the hole-conductor in place of iodide/tri-iodide electrolyte. The hole conductor was applied on dyed nonporous TiO2 films from a solution containing a crystal growth inhibitor triethylammium thiocyanate (THT) using drop-casting method. 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. to achieve a highest efficiency(ɳ) of 1.7% with a short circuit current density (Jsc) of 11 mA cm-2, open circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.30 V and fill factor (ff) of 51.8. These are the highest recorded values so far achieved for such solar cells. Stability measurements were carried out for a period of 30 days and promisingly showed a good stability over the liquid type natural dye sensitised solar.