In quest of power conversion efficiency in nature-inspired dye-sensitized solar cells: Individual, co-sensitized or tandem configuration?

A series of dye-sensitized solar cells were designed and manufactured based on natural dyes extracted from red grape, red onion peel, radish, sour orange peel, and sambucus ebulus, as photosensitizers. The UV–Visible technique was served to determine maximum adsorption of natural extract and pre-dyed photoanode. The Fourier transform infrared analysis was employed to track the presence of functional groups. The cyclic voltammetry method was used to assess the possibility of charge transfer from a dried natural dye to the photoelectrode. The performance of natural-based dye-sensitized solar cells was subsequently determined. Fabricated devices were examined for power conversion efficiency (PCE), individually, in co-sensitized (Co-DSSC) arrangement and in tandem (T-DSSC) with each other. In case of individual device, the highest possible PCE among studied systems was ca. 1.47%, belonged to radish extract. For T-DSSC and Co-DSSC, 1.59 and 2.59% were respectively the highest values of PCE obtained in this work. The use of T-DSSC device has been applied for the first time in this work, which provides with expanding photovoltaic absorption range.