Fabrication and Performance Test of Dye-Sensized Solar Cell Using Natural Dye Extracted from Basella Alba seeds

In this study, the extracted dye from Basella alba seeds has been successfully applied as a photo-sensitizer on nanocrystalline TiO
₂
photo-electrode deposited on SnO
₂
:F coated glass substrate by spin coating technique to fabricate dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). The TiO
₂
photo-electrode has been made with two and four layers. The other components for this DSSC were KI/I
₂
based electrolyte and carbon counter electrode. The optical property and incident photon to current conversion efficiency reveal that maximum dye is incorporated in four layers TiO
₂
electrode. The cell with four layers of nanocrystalline TiO
₂
film achieved 462.564 mV open circuit voltage, 0.512 mA/cm
²
photocurrent density, 48.5% film factor and 0.115% efficiency under light illumination with 100 mW/cm
²
. This dye can be found everywhere in Bangladesh and also offer the advantages of low cost, environment friendliness, easy dye extraction.