Curcumin Dye Extracted from Curcuma longa L. Used as Sensitizers for Efficient Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

摘要

The natural dye, curcumin, was extracted from Curcuma longa L. using a simple extraction technique.The dye was then used as a sensitizer in a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) without further purification,and its characteristics were studied. The dye was treated with acetic, nitric and hydrochloric acid forstabilization and increasing the conversion efficiency. The current conversion efficiency was 0.60%for the acetic acid-treated curcumin dye, which was double that of the nitric and hydrochloric acidstreated dyes. The short-circuit current (Jsc), open-circuit voltage (Voc) and fill factor of the DSSCs-2 made from the acetic acid treated dye were 1.6544 mA cm , 0.5511 V and 0.6646 respectively.Therefore, the addition of acetic acid to the curcumin dye results in slightly higher conversionefficiency than the bare dye, whereas the conversion efficiency is suppressed when the dye is treatedwith nitric and hydrochloric acid. This paper briefly discusses the effects of naturally obtainedcurcumin dye on the performance in DSSCs.