Pilictricity: Fabrication And Optimization Of Dye Sensitized Solar Cell Using Pili (Canarium Ovatum) Dye And Activated Carbon As Sensitizer And Counter Electrode

Abstract

Dye sensitized solar cells are a new concept of photovoltaic devices that was first developed by Regan and Grätzel. In presented study, DSSC is fabricated using anatase titanium dioxide as semiconducting layer deposited on transparent conductive indium tin oxide (ITO) glass through doctor blade method. Natural dye derived from the exocarp of Pili (Canarium ovatum) was used as photosensitizer and chemically activated carbon derived from its shell was used as carbon-based counter electrode. Assembled DSSC with active surface area of 2.0 cm² was tested under solar irradiance for open circuit photovoltage (V_OC), short circuit current density (J_SC), fill factor (FF), and conversion efficiency (η) at variable values of TiO₂ film thickness and soaking time in dye. Runs were generated using Design-Expert^® for optimization through Central Composite Design under Response Surface Methodology. Optimized DSSC parameter with 0.768 desirability was selected with TiO₂ film thickness of 55.23 µm and 12 hours dye-soaking period which generated open V_OC of 0.446 V, J_SC of 6.293 mA/cm², FF of 0.601, η of 1.792.