Effects of PbS-NPs doping on the photovoltaic performance of natural dye-sensitized TiO2 photoelectrodes

Abstract

In this work, we report the synthesis of TiO2 photoelectrodes sensitized with different natural organic dyes extracted (using methanol) from spinach, raspberry and passion fruit for their application in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC). The effects of Lead Sulfide (PbS) NanoParticles (NPs) doping on the sensitized TiO2 photoelectrodes photovoltaic performance were mainly studied. Good absorption in the visible range (400–700 [nm]) was observed for natural dyes extracted from spinach and raspberry, observing characteristic peaks associated with chlorophylls, β-carotenes and phycoerythrin pigments. On the other hand, natural dye synthesized from passion fruit showed a poor absorption in this range concerning the previous mentioned sources. Cells using spinach and raspberry based dyes generally showed good Fill Factors (FF) higher than 55%, observing depreciable or negative influence of the PbS doping. Open-Circuit voltages (Voc), Short-Circuit current densities (Jsc) and Power Conversion Efficiencies (PCE) in the range of 0.35–0.55 [V], 0.01–0.12 [mA/cm2] and 0.002–0.03 [%] were respectively estimated.