title: From salmon pink to blue natural sensitizers for solar cells: Canna indica L., Salvia splendens, cowberry and Solanum nigrum L.
abstract: Study on dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) with extracts of Canna indica L., Salvia splendens, Solanum nigrum L. as sensitizers is firstly reported in this paper. DSSCs were assembled by using natural dyes extracted from C. indica L., S. splendens, cowberry and S. nigrum L. as sensitizers. The energy conversion efficiency of the cells sensitized with dyes of C. indica L., S. splendens, cowberry and S. nigrum L. was 0.29%, 0.26%, 0.13% and 0.31%, respectively. A novel technique was taken to fabricate TiO(2) electrode films by electrophoresis. We present FTIR and UV-vis spectroscopy studies of structures and light absorption of these four kinds of natural dyes. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was used to analyze the interface resistance of cells. The result indicated that high resistance existed in the interfaces of cell with cowberry extract as sensitizer.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry, Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Functional Macromolecular Chemistry, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, PR China. luopeihui1986@yahoo.com.cn
authors.forename: Peihui
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Haijun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Xuduo
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.forename: Milin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Wen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D004396:Coloring Agents / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004563:Electrochemistry; D015394:Molecular Structure; D010777:Photochemistry; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D027544:Salvia / Q000737:chemistry; D032324:Solanum nigrum / Q000737:chemistry; D012993:Solar Energy; D029796:Vaccinium / Q000737:chemistry; D019862:Zingiberales / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D004396:Coloring Agents; D010936:Plant Extracts