การประดิษฐ์เซลล์แสงอาทิตย์ชนิดสีย้อมไวแสงที่เป็นมิตรต่อสิ่งแวดล้อม โดยใช้สีย้อมธรรมชาติเป็นรงควัตถุสำหรับเก็บเกี่ยวแสง

Abstract

One of the interesting renewable energy devices is dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC), which can convert solar radiation into electricity by using natural pigments as sensitizers. The simple preparation technique, low cost, feasible extraction processes, innocuous pigments, complete biodegradation and environmentally friendly are the advantage of DSSC. Besides, the extraction process of natural pigments is simple and inexpensive compared with synthetic dyes. These natural pigments such as chlorophylls, anthocyanin, carotenoids, and flavonoids were extracted from flowers, leaves, roots, and fruits from the plant source. Due to pigment advantage on DSSC, natural dyes utilization is the main objective in this study. Thus, this research study on the extraction of natural dye from tropical plants (Terminalia catappa, Cochlospermum regium, Dimocarpus longan and Lagerstroemia macrocarpa) by using solvent extraction method. Moreover, analyze the effectiveness of the different layers (1, 2 and 3 layers) and temperature (100, 200 and 300 ºC) of TiO2 on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO, SnO2: F) to evaluate the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). A UV-visible spectrometer was used for analyzing the natural dye's absorption wavelength for the DSSC application. The result showed the pigment extracted from longan leaves had the highest pigment content than other natural dyes. The most composed of chlorophyll-a, which is 85.213 ± 0.403 µg/ml, followed by chlorophyll-b and carotenoids with is 28.083 ± 0.079 and 13.128 ± 0.125 µg/ml, respectively. The condition of one layer and 300 °C of the TiO2 nanoparticle with natural dye extracted from longan leaves have the highest efficiency with 0.4735 ±0.043%. The energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) was used for confirmed the elemental of the TiO2 nanoparticles and natural dyes. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) and the laser scanning microscope used for analyzed morphological characteristics of TiO2 nanoparticles and natural dyes. Moreover, Inthanin bok leaves have the highest efficiency with 1.138% ± 0.018, which the condition of 1 layer of TiO2 nanoparticles and the temperature; 300 °C when compare with Indian almond, Yellow cotton, Longan leaves. Therefore, the use of these extracts would increase efficiency and reduce production costs for the manufacture of DSSC.