Optimization of Organic Meso-Superstructured Solar Cells for Underwater IoT2 Self-Powered Sensors

The effectiveness of the mesoporous TiO
₂
layer, which acts as an active n-type semiconductor layer in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), was investigated by varying AgVO
₃
doping. To optimize the meso-superstructure, the doping concentration was varied from 0% to 25% using experimentally validated simulations. Moreover, performance comparisons between the experimentally fabricated DSSCs based on natural beetroot dye and the commonly used N719 dye were made. A 15% doping concentration was found optimum for our DSSC, which delivered an output power of 19.24 mW, 6.1% power conversion efficiency, and an open-circuit voltage,
${V}_{\text {oc}}$
, of 0.5 V and a short-circuit current density,
${J}_{\text {sc}}$
, of 21 mA/cm
²
in diffused light conditions. Based on these performance results, we integrated our optimized DSSC in an underwater sensing unit as a light harvester.