title: Performance of Caesalpinia sappan heartwood extract as photo sensitizer for dye sensitized solar cells.
abstract: A natural dye extracted from Caesalpinia sappan heartwood was used as photo sensitizer for the first time to fabricate titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles based dye sensitized solar cells. Brazilin and brazilein are the major pigments present in the natural dye and their optimized molecular structure were calculated using Density functional theory (DFT) at 6-31G (d) level. The HOMO-LUMO were performed to reveal the energy gap using optimized structure. Pure TiO2 nanoparticles in anatase phase were synthesized by sol-gel technique. The pure and natural dye sensitized TiO2 nanoparticles were subjected to structural, optical, spectral and morphological studies. Low cost and environment friendly dye sensitized solar cells were fabricated using natural dye sensitized TiO2 based photo anode. The solar light to electron conversion efficiency of Caesalpinia sappan heartwood extract sensitized dye sensitized solar cell is 1.1%.
authors.affiliation: MRDL, PG & Research Department of Physics, Pachaiyappa's College, Chennai 600 030, India.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ananth
authors.affiliation: MRDL, PG & Research Department of Physics, Pachaiyappa's College, Chennai 600 030, India.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vivek
authors.affiliation: MRDL, PG & Research Department of Physics, Pachaiyappa's College, Chennai 600 030, India.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Saravana Kumar
authors.affiliation: MRDL, PG & Research Department of Physics, Pachaiyappa's College, Chennai 600 030, India. Electronic address: murugakoothan03@yahoo.co.in.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Murugakoothan
mesh_terms: D001578:Benzopyrans / Q000737:chemistry; D029911:Caesalpinia / Q000737:chemistry*; D004396:Coloring Agents / Q000737:chemistry*; D007192:Indenes / Q000737:chemistry; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D008956:Models, Chemical; D015394:Molecular Structure; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000737:chemistry*; D012993:Solar Energy; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D014025:Titanium; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: D001578:Benzopyrans; D004396:Coloring Agents; D007192:Indenes; D010936:Plant Extracts; C009495:titanium dioxide; C050295:brazilein; D014025:Titanium; C044362:brazilin
keywords: Caesalpinia sappan heartwood; Density functional theory; Dye sensitized solar cell; Natural dye; Sol–gel; Titanium dioxide