Role of chenodeoxycholic acid as co-additive in improving the efficiency of DSSCs

Abstract Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are the third generation photovoltaics that convert solar radiation into electricity. DSSCs have been widely studied due to their low cost and ease of fabrication. In this study, TiO2 photoanodes have been sensitized with organic dyes RhB and D149 and their performance was compared with conventional N719 sensitized photoanode. Further, the consequences of addition of chenodeoxycholic acid (CDA) on the performance of DSSCs sensitized with RhB, D149 and N719 dyes were analyzed. The photoanodes were characterized using FESEM, EDXs and XRD techniques. To reduce the cost of DSSCs, Graphite from HB pencil along with PEDOT:PSS (Gr-PEDOT) was used as catalytic material instead of expensive platinum in counter electrode. The electrocatalytic activity of prepared counter electrode was investigated by cyclic voltammetry. The performance of DSSCs was investigated by I-V characteristic measurement and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy. The photo conversion efficiency of RhB, D149 and N719 sensitized DSSCs were found to be 1.42%, 6.67% and 6.34% respectively. At optimized condition, the addition of CDA in dye solution remarkably increased the performance of RhB, D149 and N719 sensitized DSSCs by 23.24%, 15.74% and 10.41% respectively. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy has been analyzed in terms of Nyquist plot and an equivalent circuit has been modelled to find out series resistance, resistance due to redox reaction at counter electrode and charge transfer resistance at TiO2/dye/electrolyte interface.

[1]  Michael Grätzel,et al.  Porphyrin-Sensitized Solar Cells with Cobalt (II/III)–Based Redox Electrolyte Exceed 12 Percent Efficiency , 2011, Science.

[2]  Yongfeng Li,et al.  Construction of efficient counter electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells: Fe2O3 nanoparticles anchored onto graphene frameworks , 2016 .

[3]  Y. Yamaguchi,et al.  Synthesis and characterization of squaric acid based NIR dyes for their application towards dye-sensitized solar cells , 2010 .

[4]  J. Shapter,et al.  Carbonaceous Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cell Photoelectrodes , 2015, Advanced science.

[5]  Bin Wang,et al.  Facile synthesis of ZnO nanocrystals via a solid state reaction for high performance plastic dye-sensitized solar cells , 2011, Nano Research.

[6]  T. V. Arjunan,et al.  Review: Dye sensitised solar cells , 2013 .

[7]  Zhiyu Li,et al.  Extracting Cross-Sectional Clinical Images Based on Their Principal Axes of Inertia , 2017, Scanning.

[8]  Jihuai Wu,et al.  Cobalt telluride/reduced graphene oxide using as high performance counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells , 2015 .

[9]  Akhtaruzzaman,et al.  Panchromatic absorption of dye sensitized solar cells by co-Sensitization of triple organic dyes , 2018 .

[10]  Woo-Jae Chung,et al.  Recent progress in dye-sensitized solar cells for improving efficiency: TiO 2 nanotube arrays in active layer , 2015 .

[11]  Chulwoo Kim,et al.  Efficient and stable panchromatic squaraine dyes for dye-sensitized solar cells. , 2011, Chemical communications.

[12]  Zurina Zainal Abidin,et al.  A High Efficiency Chlorophyll Sensitized Solar Cell with Quasi Solid PVA Based Electrolyte , 2016 .

[13]  S. Chand,et al.  Nanobeads of zinc oxide with rhodamine B dye as a sensitizer for dye sensitized solar cell application , 2012 .

[14]  Mingdeng Wei,et al.  Highly efficient indoline dyes co-sensitized solar cells composed of titania nanorods , 2013 .

[15]  V. Amornkitbamrung,et al.  A Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Using a Composite of PEDOT:PSS and Carbon Derived from Human Hair for a Counter Electrode , 2017 .

[16]  Efficient dye-sensitized solar cells from mesoporous zinc oxide nanostructures sensitized by N719 dye , 2018 .

[17]  M. A. Mahdi,et al.  Fabrication and Characterization of Porous CdS/Dye Sensitized Solar Cells , 2016 .

[18]  Hidetoshi Miura,et al.  High-conversion-efficiency organic dye-sensitized solar cells with a novel indoline dye. , 2008, Chemical communications.

[19]  Jiajie Fan,et al.  Dye-sensitized solar cells based on TiO2 nanoparticles/nanobelts double-layered film with improved photovoltaic performance , 2014 .

[20]  J. Hua,et al.  Effect of chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) additive on phenothiazine dyes sensitized photovoltaic performance , 2011 .

[21]  L. Giribabu,et al.  Phthalocyanines: potential alternative sensitizers to Ru(II) polypyridyl complexes for dye-sensitized solar cells , 2012 .

[22]  H. Zayed,et al.  Enhancement of the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells using sensitized zinc oxide nanoparticles by rhodamine B dye , 2019, Egyptian Journal of Chemistry.

[23]  Jiawei Gong,et al.  Review on dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs): Advanced techniques and research trends , 2017 .

[24]  P. Bhargava,et al.  Effect of aging conditions on the performance of dip coated platinum counter electrode based dye sensitized solar cells , 2015 .

[25]  J. Simiyu,et al.  EFFECTS OF TiO2 FILM THICKNESS AND ELECTROLYTE CONCENTRATION ON PHOTOVOLTAIC PERFORMANCE OF DYE-SENSITIZED SOLAR CELL , 2017 .

[26]  V. Amornkitbamrung,et al.  A dye sensitized solar cell using natural counter electrode and natural dye derived from mangosteen peel waste , 2015, Scientific Reports.

[27]  L. Giribabu,et al.  Are porphyrins an alternative to ruthenium ( II ) sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells ? , 2013 .

[28]  Basile F. E. Curchod,et al.  Dye-sensitized solar cells with 13% efficiency achieved through the molecular engineering of porphyrin sensitizers. , 2014, Nature chemistry.

[29]  Leone Spiccia,et al.  High-efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells with ferrocene-based electrolytes. , 2011, Nature chemistry.

[30]  Bong-Gi Kim,et al.  Molecular design principle of all-organic dyes for dye-sensitized solar cells. , 2013, Chemistry.

[31]  A. Subramania,et al.  Effect of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium iodide containing electrospun poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) membrane electrolyte on the photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitized solar cells , 2015 .

[32]  Y. Duan,et al.  Plastic dye-sensitized solar cells with enhanced performance prepared from a printable TiO2 paste , 2013 .

[33]  K. Sharma,et al.  Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells: Fundamentals and Current Status , 2018, Nanoscale Research Letters.

[34]  Study of Dye Sensitized Solar Cell using Mirabilis Jalapa Flower Extract , 2019, Materials Today: Proceedings.

[35]  Three-in-one approach towards efficient organic dye-sensitized solar cells: aggregation suppression, panchromatic absorption and resonance energy transfer , 2017, Beilstein journal of nanotechnology.

[36]  I. Bu,et al.  A new type of counter electrode for dye sensitized solar cells based on solution processed SnO2 and activated carbon , 2015 .

[37]  Michael Grätzel,et al.  Conversion of sunlight to electric power by nanocrystalline dye-sensitized solar cells , 2004 .

[38]  Kuo-Chuan Ho,et al.  Use of organic materials in dye-sensitized solar cells , 2017 .

[39]  Jong Hyeok Park,et al.  Conducting Polymer Coated Non-woven Graphite Fiber Film for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells: Superior Pt- and FTO-Free Counter Electrodes , 2014 .

[40]  Kazuhiro Sayama,et al.  Efficient eosin y dye-sensitized solar cell containing Br-/Br3- electrolyte. , 2005, The journal of physical chemistry. B.

[41]  A structurally simple donor with a low recombination rate for high-performance dye-sensitized solar cells , 2019, Solar Energy.

[42]  A. Mondal,et al.  ZnO and TiO2 Nanostructured Dye sensitized Solar Photovoltaic Cell , 2019, Materials Today: Proceedings.