Natural photosensitizers for solid-state dye sensitized solar cell

Natural dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC) have been widely investigated as a next generation solar cell because of their simple structure and low manufacturing cost. In the present work betacyanin dye responsible for the red color of many fruits and leaves having favorable absorption spectra with the solar spectrum has been used in fabrication of solid state dye sensitized solar cell. A Nanocomposite polymer electrolyte consisting of Poly vinyl alcohol (PVA), Lithium acetate, Ethylene carbonate (EC) and Propylene carbonate (PC) with TiO₂ filler was used as a solid state thin film electrolyte for betacynin based Dye Sensitized Solar cell. The nanocomposite polymer was complexed with ammonium iodide and iodine crystals were added to the polymer electrolyte. The DSSC with the nanocomposite polymer electrolyte showed good photovoltaic performnance including short circuit photocurrent density (Jsc) 9.8 mA cm^-2, the opencircuit volyage (Voc) 0.435 V, the fill factor (ff) of 52% and the conversion effeciency (η) of 2.2% under AM 1.5.