In quest of power conversion efficiency in nature-inspired dye-sensitized solar cells: Individual, co-sensitized or tandem configuration?

A series of dye-sensitized solar cells were designed and manufactured based on natural dyes extracted from red grape, red onion peel, radish, sour orange peel, and sambucus ebulus, as photosensitizers. The UV-Visible technique was served to determine maximum adsorption of natural extract and pre-dyed photoanode. The Fourier transform infrared analysis was employed to track the presence of functional groups. The cyclic voltammetry method was used to assess the possibility of charge transfer from a dried natural dye to the photoelectrode. The performance of natural-based dye-sensitized solar cells was subsequently determined. Fabricated devices were examined for power conversion efficiency (PCE), individually, in co-sensitized (Co-DSSC) arrangement and in tandem (T-DSSC) with each other. In case of individual device, the highest possible PCE among studied systems was ca. 1.47%, belonged to radish extract. For T-DSSC and Co-DSSC, 1.59 and 2.59% were respectively the highest values of PCE obtained in this work. The use of T-DSSC device has been applied for the first time in this work, which provides with expanding photovoltaic absorption range. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.