Zinc and Titanium Oxide Composite for Galena and Turmeric Dye-Based Sensitized Solar Cell

Abstract

Ruthenium (Ru)-complex dyes are the widely used materials as photosensitizers in Dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) devices fabrication for a long time. This work considered the use of alternative natural mineral dyes to the effective but expensive Ru-complex dye and also modified the photoanode used. The modified photoanode has improved properties both structural and optical-wise, over the TiO₂-based photoanode film. The energy gap obtained for both the Turmeric and Galena dye are 2.27 eV and 1.70 eV respectively. The I-V characteristics of the TiO₂-based cell show 340 mV and 32 µA for the generated open-circuit voltage (V_oc) and short circuit current (I_sc) respectively, while V_oc and I_sc of 510 mV and 25 µA for the modified photoanode cell was obtained. The Galena as the natural mineral dye shows a promising alternative to the challenge of quick degradation of plant dyes in DSSC.