Experimental Study of the Effects of Chenodeoxycholic Acid (Cdca) Additive on Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell (Dssc) Performance Using Dye Mixture of Chlorophyll and Anthocyanin

Abstract

In this study, we seek to investigate the effects of Chenodeoxycholic Acid (CDCA) in the improvement of photosensitizer made from the mixture of chlorophyll and anthocyanin extracted from neem leaves (Azdirachta indica) and roselle flowers (Hibiscus sabdariffa ) respectively. Four DSSC samples were prepared on separate substrates made from fluorinated tin oxide (FTO) coated with titanium dioxide (TiO2) semiconductor nanoparticles double-loaded with different patterns of dye mixture and labeled AA, AB, AC and AD. The optimized dye mixture containing neem in ethanol (Ne) and Hibiscus in water (Hw), (that is, Ne+Hw), gave the best absorbance spectrum and widest band gap with highest peak at 550nm wavelength. Additive dye that contained 1.0mM of CDCA concentration gave maximum peak at 630nm wavelength (aside zero concentration), and showed significantly long-term stability. Substrate AB loaded with background optimized fresh dye and overlaid with additive dye produced the best overall photovoltaic performance with efficiency of 0.505%, fill factor of 54.97%, short-circuit current density Jsc of 0.090mA and open-circuit voltage Voc of 10.20mV. The result showed that the efficiency of cell AB surpassed the efficiency of cell AC (substrate with background old dye loading overlaid with additive dye) by 17.03%, 31.48% over cell AA (substrate double-loaded with only optimized dye), and 35.84% over cell AD (substrate doubled-loaded with only additive dye).