Performance of Kerria japonica and Rosa chinensis flower dyes as sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells

The natural dyes carotenoid and anthocyanin were extracted from Kerria japonica and Rosa chinensis, respectively, using a simple extraction technique without any further purification. They were then used as sensitizers in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), and their characteristics were studied. The ranges of short-circuit current (J(sc)) from 0.559 to 0.801 (mA/cm(2)), open-circuit voltage (V-oc) from 0.537 to 0.584 V. and fill factor from 0.676 to 0.705 were obtained for the DSSCs made using the extracted dyes. Sugar molecules were added externally to the dye for stabilization and to increase the conversion efficiency. The efficiencies of the K. japonica and R. chinensis dyes were 0.22% and 0.29%, respectively; after the addition of sugar, the efficiency increased to 0.29% for K. japonica and decreased to 0.27% for R. chinensis. Thus, the addition of sugar molecules increased the conversion efficiency slightly with the carotenoid dye of K. japonica. while there was no considerable change with the anthocyanin of R. chinensis. This paper briefly discusses the simple extraction technique of these natural dyes and their performance in DSSCs. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.