Investigation of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Efficiency based on Natural Dye and TiO2 Nanowire Photoanode

In this work, an attempt has been made to develop a low-cost and environmentally friendly natural dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) based on TiO2 nanowire photoanode. The TiO2 nanowire photoanode was fabricated using the Glancing Angle Deposition Technique (GLAD) on FTO substrates using the e-beam evaporation technique. The measured length and top diameter of the fabricated TiO2-NW are ~ 410 nm and ~ 85 nm, respectively, which is analysed using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The annealed sample of TiO2 nanowire sample shows X-ray Diffraction (XRD) peaks at ~ 24.86 º and ~ 38.18 º from the (111) and (004) crystal planes of TiO2 crystal. The optical properties of the pomegranate dye loaded photoanode shows enhanced absorption intensity in the UV and visible region. Furthermore, the photo conversion efficiency of DSSCs based on mulberry and pomegranate dye is found to be ~ 0.03% and ~ 0.09%, respectively. Therefore, the proposed technique of fabricating TiO2 nanostructure based photoanodes may be applicable for developing low-cost, environmentally friendly natural DSSCs.