Study on dye-sensitized solar cell efficiency improvement using methyl orange dye

Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy https://doi.org/10.1007/s40243-025-00296-9 (2025) 14:24 ORIGINAL PAPER Study on dye-sensitized solar cell efficiency improvement using methyl orange dye Qurratulain1 · Safia Akhtar Kazmi1 · Salman Hameed1 · Rupendra Kumar Pachauri2,3 · Baseem Khan4 · Ahmed Ali5 Received: 25 November 2023 / Accepted: 7 January 2025 © The Author(s) 2025 Abstract In this work, different varieties of dye sensitized solar cells are fabricated by simple fabrication process. In this fabrication extract of butea monosperma flower, methylene blue and methyl orange dyes are used as sensitizers. The photovoltaic performance of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) has been studied. The performances of two different types of photoelectrodes are also tested in this work. The morphology and bandgap of TiO2 (titanium dioxide) and ZnO (Zinc oxide) was observed from XRD, FTIR spectroscopy and UV-vis Spectrum. It is found that TiO2 based DSSCs have better performance. It also observed that the current density and efficiency was increased from 7.46 to 12.9 mA/cm2 and from 1.34 to 6.8% respectively when using methyl orange as a dye. Hence it can be said that methyl orange dye enhanced the photovoltaic performance of DSSC. Keywords DSSCs · TiO2 · ZnO · Methyl orange · Methylene blue · Dye Introduction Baseem Khan Qurratulain Safia Akhtar Kazmi Salman Hameed Rupendra Kumar Pachauri 1 Electrical Engineering Department, ZHCET, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh 202002, India 2 Electrical Cluster, School of Advanced Engineering, UPES, Dehradun 248007, India 3 Miyan Research Institute, International University of Business Agriculture and Technology, Dhaka 1230, Bangladesh 4 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Hawassa University, Hawassa, Ethiopia 5 Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technology, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg 2006, South Africa Use of renewable energy sources is the most effective way to fulfill the ever-increasing demand for electrical energy. Among all renewable energy solar energy is considered as a suitable source of energy because energy from sunlight in one hour is more than all the energy consumed in an entire year [1]. Dye sensitized solar cells are the low cost, simple fabricated solar cell was first reported by Gratzel [2]. DSSC is multi-layer sandwich like structure having photo electrode, dye, electrolyte and counter electrode [3]. Basically, DSSCs follow the natural process photosynthesis in which the plants convert light from sun into energy by sensitizing a nanocrystalline semiconductor layer using natural or synthetic dyes. DSSC offers many advantages as compare to Si based solar cell like DSSCs are low cost and moderate efficiency solar cell. DSSC work at low intensities and wide angle of incident light beam, great mechanical robustness. It have transparent electrodes [4]. It also found in various colour, so it is used in indoor application also. The dye molecules absorb the sunlight which plays vital role through its capability to absorb the visible photons and an electrolyte is used for dye regeneration. The efficiency of DSSC is based on different dyes and different metal oxides used as the one of the electrode like TiO2, ZnO, WO3, FeO3, SnO2 etc [5, 6].Therefore, research focused on different types of dyes and enhance the solar cell conversion 13 24 Page 2 of 8 efficiency [7, 8]. Initially, ruthenium-based complexes were used as dye because of their good photo electrochemical properties [9, 10]. There are many others organic dyes reported in literature. From these dyes, some synthetic dyes like Aniline blue and N719 are very low, and this is because the material that was used as ETL was ZnO nanorods. Besides these dyes there are many natural dyes like red turnip, pomegranate, Crocetin, Bonganvillea, Cherris, Raspberries, Sumac/Rhusfruits, Curcuma longa roots etc. having conversion efficiencies of 1.7%, 1.5%, 0.56%, 0.38%, 0.18%, 0.309%, 1.5%, 0.36% respectively [11–15]. Nur Najiha et al. [16] uses three natural dyes i.e., Avacoda peel, Blue berry and Pomegranate in fabrication of DSSC and found their efficiency as 48.25 × 10− 12%, 24.62 × 10− 12%, and 15.75 × 10− 12% respectively. Similarly, D. Sinha et al. used natural dyes (i.e., Purple cabbage, Beetroot and their mixture) [17] and found the efficiency of 0.1015%, 0.17% and 0.3827% respectively. H. Setyawadi uses the methyl orange as a dye and found the photovoltaic efficiency of 0.24% [2] as given in Table 1. In this present work three different types of dyes i.e., methyl orange, methylene blue and extract of butea-monosperma flower are reported. From above literature, it can be seen that the maximum efficiency of DSSC using methyl orange [2] and methylene blue [22] dye were 1.137% and 2.20% respectively. In the present work, fabrication of DSSC using methyl orange and methylene blue dye have been done and the calculated efficiency is 6.8% and 3.35%, which shows an enhancement as 83.27% and 34.32% respectively. Working principle of DSSC A typical dye sensitized solar cell consists of anode and cathode made up of fluorine doped tin oxide glass (FTO) which Table 1 Review of DSSCs using different natural and synthetic dyes Dyes Type of Dyes Efficiency (%) References Eosin Y Synthetic 0.399 [18] Crystal violet Synthetic 0.249 [18] Methyl orange Synthetic 0.115 [18] Ru complex Synthetic 2.58 [18] Harda fruit Natural 3.52 [19] Fabric dye Synthetic 0.80 [19] Methyl orange Synthetic 0.24 [2] Monodye-N719 Synthetic 1.68 [20] Betanin Natural 1.69 [20] Crocin acacetin Natural 1.85 [20] Indigo Natural 1.88 [20] Papaya leaf Natural 0.17 [21] Alizarian red Synthetic 0.62 [22] Methyl orange Synthetic 1.137 [2] Methyl orange Synthetic 0.756 [23] Methyl orange Synthetic 1.57 [22] Methylene Blue Synthetic 2.20 [22] Methylene blue Synthetic 0.85 [22] 13 Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy (2025) 14:24 allows light pass through the cell, semiconductor oxide layer (TiO2/ZnO), dye sensitizer, first type of dye was Polypyridyle compounds of Pu (II) F. Some researchers reported the “black dye” and different ruthenium complexes. Besides these synthetic dye different researchers work with natural dye like shiso leaf pigments, Calafate fruit, Henna, Bamboo leaves, California blackberries, Strawberries, Pomegranate, Raspberries, and Cherries etc. In this present work both natural and synthetic dye and electrolyte (Iodide, tri-iodide) are used. DSSC works on the principle that, when sun light strikes on the photoanode the photons of wavelength corresponding to the energy difference between highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of the dye, are absorbed by the dye sensitizer (natural or chemical). The electrons are then moved to the conduction band of TiO2 and move to the photo-anode. The electrons from the photoanode flow t (...truncated)