scholarly journals Natural Waste to Electricity: Engineering Pomegranate Peels and Ag-Doped ZnO for Photovoltaic Applications

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Joseph Kanniyambatti Lourdusamy ◽  
Mary Rosana Nalzala Thomas ◽  
Vijai Anand Kabali ◽  
Dhilip Kumar Rajaiah
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Conversion Efficiency ◽  
Dye Sensitized Solar Cells ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Dye Sensitized ◽  
Photovoltaic Conversion ◽  
Cost Effective Method ◽  
Doped Zno ◽  
Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract Utilization of natural waste for energy conversion offers the method for clean energy production with sustainable development. The pomegranate peels are the natural waste generated every day and we describe the conversion of this waste into electricity by a simple and cost-effective method. Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) offer simple and cost-effective method for the preparation of solar cells. The advantages include easy to fabrication, lower cost of the materials and electricity generation under low illumination indoor conditions. DSSCs involve two Transparent Conducting Oxide (TCO) photoelectrodes acting as photoanode and photocathode. In one photoelectrode, Semiconducting oxide (TiO2/ZnO) and dye (Natural/Organometallic) are coated that acts as photo-absorbing materials. The role of dyes and semiconducting material play an important role in determining the photovoltaic conversion efficiency of fabricated solar cells. In this work, hydrothermal method has been adopted for the preparation of pure and silver doped ZnO nanoparticles using polyethylene glycol (PEG) as capping agent via wet chemical route. The structural and optical properties of the prepared samples were studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis (EDAX) and UV-Visible absorption spectra. A Natural dye from the peels of pomegranate was extracted and dye sensitized solar cells were fabricated with pure and Ag-doped nanoparticles. Both the materials showed the photovoltaic conversion capabilities and showed photoconversion efficiencies. The solar cell fabricated with Ag-doped ZnO semiconducting nanoparticle showed higher short circuit current density as compared to the pure ZnO-nanoparticle synthesized in this study. The photoconversion efficiency of the DSSC based on Ag-doped ZnO showed 30% more conversion efficiency than the cell without silver doping.

Large Pore Nanocrystalline TiO2 Films for Quasi-Solid State Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

2013 ◽  
Vol 662 ◽  
pp. 177-181
Author(s):  
Jian Gao ◽  
Hao Ran Li ◽  
Hua Rong ◽  
Yu Hua Dai
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Solid State ◽  
Conversion Efficiency ◽  
Dye Sensitized Solar Cells ◽  
Dye Sensitized ◽  
Photovoltaic Conversion ◽  
Photovoltaic Conversion Efficiency ◽  
Large Pore ◽  
Vis Spectroscopy ◽  
Sensitized Solar Cells

Photoelectrodes of mixed polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and TiO2paste with different ratios were fabricated and studied for improved photovoltaic conversion efficiency in quasi-solid state dye-sensitized solar cells(QS-DSCs). The large pore nanocrystalline TiO2films were prepared by the doctor blade method and charicterized by SEM and UV-Vis spectroscopy. SEM images show that large pores have been formed in the TiO2films. The transmittance of the films increased with an increase amount of PMMA, while the light-absorption decreased when the films covered by dyes. I-V curves show that a relatively high photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 2.1%~2.26% was achieved when the PMMA/ TiO2paste weight ratio was in the range of 1:25~1:35 under AM 1.5 illumination at 100mW/cm2.

scholarly journals Improved Composite Gel Electrolyte by Layered Vermiculite for Quasi-Solid-State Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Hongcai He ◽  
Shuangshuang Ren ◽  
Deting Kong ◽  
Ning Wang
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Conversion Efficiency ◽  
Dye Sensitized Solar Cells ◽  
Enhancement Effect ◽  
Photovoltaic Properties ◽  
Dye Sensitized ◽  
Photovoltaic Conversion ◽  
Photovoltaic Conversion Efficiency ◽  
Composite Gel ◽  
Sensitized Solar Cells

A composite quasisolid electrolyte is prepared by adding a layered vermiculite (VMT) into the iodide/triiodide electrolyte including 4-tert-butylpyridine, which obviously improves the photovoltaic properties of quasisolid dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). When adding 6 wt% VMT, the maximum photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 3.89% is obtained, which reaches more than two times greater than that without VMT. This enhancement effect is primarily explained by studying the Nyquist spectra, dark currents, and photovoltaic conversion efficiency.

EFFECT OF THIOPHENE IN BITHIAZOLE-BRIDGED SENSITIZERS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF DYE-SENSITIZED SOLAR CELLS

NANO ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 09 (05) ◽  
pp. 1440009 ◽  
Author(s):  
XIAOYU ZHANG ◽  
FULING GUO ◽  
XIN LI ◽  
JINXIANG HE ◽  
WENJUN WU ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Conversion Efficiency ◽  
Bathochromic Shift ◽  
Dye Sensitized Solar Cells ◽  
Maximum Absorption ◽  
Dye Sensitized ◽  
Photovoltaic Conversion ◽  
Photovoltaic Conversion Efficiency ◽  
Donor Segment ◽  
Sensitized Solar Cells

In this paper, we have designed and synthesized four bithiazole-bridged sensitizers (BT-T2, TBT-T2, BT-T3 and TBT-T3) with triphenylamine and indoline as the donor segment and applied them to dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). For triphenylamine-based sensitizers as BT-T2 and TBT-T2, adding one thiophene unit between triphenylamine donor and bithiazole moiety not only led to bathochromic shift of the maximum absorption and increase of molar extinction coefficient, but also enhanced the photovoltaic conversion efficiency from 7.12% of BT-T2 to 7.51% of TBT-T2. But for indoline-based sensitizers as BT-T3 and TBT-T3, adding one thiophene unit between indoline donor and bithiazole moiety resulted in hypochromatic shift instead of bathochromic shift. We employed the density functional theory (DFT) calculations to further investigate the influence of the thiophene unit on their optical and electronic properties and photovoltaic performance of corresponding DSSC devices. Given the results, a reasonable explanation is the introduction of thiophene unit suppressed the intramolecular charge transfer and charge separation in the conjugation system of indoline-based sensitizer, which led to the hypochromatic shift of the maximum absorption wavelength and finally the low J sc . Since the J sc dropped sharply from 15.26 mAcm-2 to 4.52 mAcm-2, the photovoltaic conversion efficiency decreased dramatically from 7.86% to 1.93%.

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