Basella alba rubra spinach pigment-sensitized TiO2 thin film-based solar cells

Nanocrystalline TiO2 thin films have been prepared by sol–gel dip coating method. The X-ray diffraction results showed that TiO2 thin films annealed at 400, 450 and 500 °C are of anatase phase and the peak corresponding to the (101) plane is present in all the samples. The grain size of TiO2 thin films was found to increase with increasing annealing temperature. The grain size is found to be 20, 25 and 33 nm for the films annealed at 400, 450 and 500 °C. The structure of the TiO2 nanocrystalline thin films have been examined by high-resolution transmission electron microscope, Raman spectroscopy and FTIR spectroscopy. TiO2 thin films were sensitized by natural dyes extracted from basella alba rubra spinach. It was found that the absorption peak of basella alba rubra extract is at about 665 nm. The dye-sensitized TiO2-based solar cell sensitized using basella alba rubra exhibited a Jsc of 4.35 mA cm−2, Voc of 0.48 V, FF of 0.35 and efficiency of 0.70 %. Natural dyes as sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells are promising because of their environmental friendliness, low-cost production and fully biodegradable.