In the spinach plant extracted pigment were used in DSSC was constructed using natural chlorophylls as sensitizer. The adsorptions significant of the dyes were enquired in harvesting sunlight using incompatible solvents. The chlorophyll extracted using distilled water showed wide absorption in the visible region of the solar spectrum from the range about 400 to 720 nm above the chlorophyll extract using the solvent of ethanol.
The lowest band gap (1.83 eV) of dye also showed by the extracted the chlorophyll using distilled water. The photovoltaic performance of the DSSC sensitized by chlorophyll extract in distilled water exhibit the value of Voc of 440 mV, Jsc of 0.35 mA/cm2 and FE of 0.
49 33. Dyes receive from stems and leaves of plants, which get larger in least water and sunlight, were used as sensitizers in DSSC. The dyes extracted from Cladode and Aloe Vera obtain the pigment of chlorophyll and anthocyanin adherence promoters which were found out using FTIR and UV-vis absorption spectroscopy researches. These sticking promoters aid in efficient adsorption of plant dyes onto the TiO2 photoanode surface, imperative to photoelectric conversion.
The photoelectrochemical activity of the DSSCs based on these dye extracts in the execution value of a Voc ranging from 0.440 to 0.676 V and the Jsc in the range of 0.112-0.290 mA/cm2.
The DSSC sensitized by the Cladode offered the highest conversion efficiency of 0.740%, owing to the presence of stronger adhesion promoters in the chlorophyll dye that giving a excellent charge transfer. All-inclusive, natural plant-based dyes as sensitizers for DSSC were hopeful because of their low-fabrication costs, easy and energy-efficient assembly techniques and environmental friendliness 34.Natural dyes having carotenoid and anthocyanin pigment was extracted from the flowers of Kerria japonica and Rosa chinensis, respectively, using extraction method in the existent of any refinery. The dyes employed as sensitizers in DSSC exhibited photovoltaic limiting factor, such as Jsc in the range of 0.559 to 0.
801 mA/cm2, Voc in the range of 0.537 to 0.584 V and FF in the range of 0.676 to 0.705. The efficiencies of the K. japonica and R.
chinensis dyes were 0.22 and 0.29%, respectively. For the moment, later that the addition of sugar as stabilizing agent, the efficiency raised to 0.29% for K. japonica and become less to 0.27% for R.
chinensis. This revealed that the adding of sugar molecules raising the conversion efficiency slightly with the carotenoid dye of K. japonica, while there was no considerable make over with the anthocyanin of R. chinensis 35. CHAPTER III METERIALS AND METHODS Chemical ReagentsChemicals, to be specific, high pure zinc acetate dihydrate also too oxalic acid dihydrate were pick uped from Merck. Ethanol and methanol were obtain from Changshu Hongsheng Fine Chemical Limited, China and CDH (P) Limited, New Delhi, respectively. Fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) conducting glass (TEC-7, Sheet resistance = ?6-8 ?/cm2) was supplied by M/s.
Pilkington, Mumbai, India as gift sample. The buffalo dung sample was freshly collected from the village of thathavalli, Tirupattur Taluk, Vellore District, Tamil Nadu. Highly stable imidazole based liquid electrolyte (EL-HSC) was supplied by Dyesol, Australia. All other chemicals used in this work were of analytical arrangment and used without anyfurther purification. Unless in other ways stated, deionized double distilled water was used for the preparation of aqueous solutions and washings. Preparation of ZnO Nanoparticles The ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized by ensuing the previously reported agenda 31. In brief,the equal volume of zinc acetate dihydrate (0.1 M) and oxalic acid dihydrate (0.
1 M) aqueous solutions were mixed under the aegis of stirring for 12 h at room temperature. The generated white colour precipitate was drained and cleansed with acetone and distilled water sequentially many times to remove impurities. After that, the precipitate was dried in a hot air oven at 120 °C for 6 h to remove water molecules. Eventually, the formed ZnO nanoparticles were sintered at 450 °C for 2h in a muffle furnace.
Preparation of buffalo dung extract Two gram of buffalo dung sample was taken in 10 ml of absolute ethanol and the same was stirred for 15 minutes using a magnic stirrer. The contents were filtered using a Whatmann No. 1 filter paper and stored in a refregrator. The duffalo dung extract in ethanol was used for further studies. The identical procedure was followed towards the making of methanolic extract of buffalo dung by supplanting the solvent absolute ethanol with methanol.
Characterization studies Absorprion spectra of the buffalo dung extrscts in the wavelength range between 325 and 550 nm were recorded exploit a UV-vis spectrophotometer (UV-2550, Shimadzu). Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra of the samples were recorded in the region between 4000 and 400 cm?1 using a Shimadzu FTIR spectrometer (Model 8400S). Oriel class-A solar simulator (M–91195A, Newport) having ozone-free 450 W xenon lamp was employed as a light source for evaluating the solar cell. A computer-controlled Autolab PGSTAT302N electrochemical workstation was used for the photocurrent density-photovoltage (J-V) measurement. Fabrication of DSSC and its Performance Evaluation One gram of ZnO NPs was ground in a porcelain mortar by adding 0.35 mL of distilled water and 33.5 ?L of acetylacetone until get a sticky paste. Then, 1.
35 mL of distilled water was gradually spilled under continual grinding followed by the addition of 15 ?L Triton X-100. The derived paste was used to coated in thin film on conducting side of a FTO glass with an agile surface area of 1 cm2 by adopting a reported procedure 32. The participation of acetylacetone is to resist reaggregation of ZnO NPs and the therewithal of Triton X-100 facilitates spreading of ZnO colloidal paste on the FTO conducting glass surface. The formed ZnO thin film was dried in hot air oven for 15 min, putting at 400 °C in a muffle furnace for 5 min and the same procedure was repeated three times to get the thin film with an optimal thickness (~10 µm). Then, the film was sintered at 450 °C for 30 min and permitted to cool down to 80 °C. The hot film at 80 °C was immersed in ethanolic and methanolic extract of buffalo dung separately and okayed to stand in 24 h at room temperature. The dye-adsorbed ZnO photoanodes were took out from the ethanolic and methanolic extract solution under a stream of nitrogen gas which were instantly sandwiched with the platinum deposited counter electrode by utilising alligator clips. The platinum counter electrode was preparing on FTO conducting glass substrates using H2PtCl6.
6H2O solution (7 × 10–3 M in 2-propanol), where Pt4+ ions were thermoelectrically reduced at 400 °C. Finally, few drops of imidazole based liquid electrolyte was faulted sideways in the gap between the two electrods by the way which the electrolyte was occupied the space between them with an auxilium of surface tension. The fill factor (FF) and efficiency (?) of the DSSC were estimate by using the following equations: Jmax × Vmax Fill factor (FF) = Jsc × Voc Jsc × Voc × FF Efficiency (?) (%) = where, Jsc is the short-circuit photocurrent density, Voc is the open-circuit photovoltage, Pin is the power of incident light (100 mW/cm2) and Jmax and Vmax are the photocurrent and photovoltage delivered at maximum power point, respectively.
