Anthocyanins and betalains as light-harvesting pigments for dye-sensitized solar cells

Giuseppe Calogero*, Jun Ho Yum, Alessandro Sinopoli, Gaetano Di Marco, Michael Grätzel, Mohammad Khaja Nazeeruddin

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

342 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We present the photoelectrochemical properties of dye-sensitized solar cells using natural pigments containing betalains and anthocyanins as sensitizers. The dyes extracted from grape, mulberry, blackberry, red Sicilian orange, Sicilian prickly pear, eggplant and radicchio have shown a monochromatic incident photon to current efficiency (IPCE) ranging from 40% to 69%. Short circuit photocurrent densities (J sc) up to 8.8mA/cm 2, and open circuit voltage (V oc) ranging from 316 to 419mV, were obtained from these natural dyes under 100mW/cm 2 (AM 1.5) simulated sunlight. The best solar conversion efficiency of 2.06% was achieved with Sicilian prickly pear fruits extract. The influence of pH and co-absorbers on natural sensitizers, were investigated and discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1563-1575
Number of pages13
JournalSolar Energy
Volume86
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Anthocyanins
  • Betalains
  • Dye-sensitized solar cells
  • Natural dyes
  • Solar energy
  • Titanium oxide

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