The effect of iron complexes of quercetin on dye-sensitized solar cell efficiency

A novel quercetin and Fe-quercetin complex dyes have been prepared and used in DSSCs. The prepared dyes were characterized via FTIR, Raman, UV vis and CV techniques. The HOMO and LUMO energy levels and possible mechanism of iron complexation were discussed in detailed. A TiO2 was synthesized via microwave hydrothermal method. The photoanode TiO2 thin film was prepared by doctor blade technique. The powder and thin film TiO2 photoanodes were characterized via XRD, SEM, Raman and DRS techniques. The quercetin and Fe-quercetin have employed as sensitizers in DSSCs and their electrochemical characterization was carried out. The most probable mechanism of the Fe-quercetin complexes was elucidated by means of Raman spectroscopy measurements. The conversion efficiencies of quercetin and Fe-quercetin based solar cells are obtained as 1.27% and 3.84%, respectively. The iron complexation of quercetin increased the cell efficiency by 67%, compared to quercetin-based solar cell. Fe-quercetin as a natural dye metal complexes offered a new alternative approach to the other natural dye-sensitized solar cells, which has low-conversion efficient characteristics in natural dyes-sensitized solar cells. Additionally, the Fe-quercetin sensitizer is an alternative to organic synthetic dyes and has advantages such as easy synthesis, low cost and abundantly finding in everywhere. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.