Natural pigments: Origin and applications in dye sensitized solar cells

Dye Sensitized Solar cells (DSSCs) have emerged as green energy solution due to their low cost and easy processability. Four key components (working electrode, sensitizer, redox mediator and counter electrode) of these third generation solar cells makes its fabrication less complex and simple. However, some limitations associated with these astonished devices needed to be fixed that gave birth to the development and application of many new materials viz. graphene, nanomaterials, quantum dots, metal sulphides, natural sensitizers in DSSCs. This article provides a brief overview of DSSCs employing natural pigments as sensitizers, different types of materials as an electrode, and applications of graphene in natural DSSCs. The importance of solvents and dipping time has also discussed to improve the efficiency of DSSCs. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) are considered a green energy solution due to their low cost and easy fabrication process. The development and application of new materials such as graphene, nanomaterials, quantum dots have addressed the limitations associated with these devices.