Plant Dyes as Photosensitizer for a Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell

This study used gardenia blue and crocin extracted from gardenia fruit and anthocyanin extracted from roselle as the photosensitizers for the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). This study showed that, with an appropriate combination of anthocyanin and crocin, the short circuit current (I-sc) would increase from 0.487 to 1.710 mA and the open circuit voltage (V-oc) would also increase from 0.300 to 0.340 V. Moreover, the photoelectric conversion efficiency would increase from 0.680 to 1.040%. These results could mainly be attributed to the blue shift of the wavelength and the broader range of absorption caused by the anthocyanin-crocin mixture. This study also showed that the blending of all three dyes, that is, anthocyanin, gardenia blue, and crocin, at a ratio of 4:4:2 would not result in higher conversion efficiency (1.007%) nor would it have a higher value of I-sc (1.580 mA), though the value of V-oc (0.340 V) remained the same.