Natural Pigment Based Dye Sensitized Solar Cells: Photovoltaic Studies: A sustainable energy solution

<p style="margin-bottom:11px;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;" lang="EN-IN">The present research work is carried out on fabrication of natural pigment-based dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) utilizing Lemon leaves and Onion peels extracted dyes as natural photosensitizers. The absorption spectra analysis shows the major peaks for onion peel at </span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;position:relative;top:-1.0pt;" lang="EN-IN">370 nm and 475 nm and 664 nm for lemon leaf </span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;" lang="EN-IN">that provides valuable insights regarding the narrowing of band gap of TiO<sub>2 </sub>from standard value (3.25eV) to 2.87 and 2.44 eVby incorporation of Onion peel and Lemon leaf pigments respectively and showing the potential of natural pigments for renewable energy applications. The photovoltaic parameters revealed that the Lemon leaf extract exhibited higher power conversion efficiency (0.92%) than the Onion peel extract with an efficiency of 0.054%. Additionally, impedance analysis was conducted to understand the charge transport and recombination processes within the DSSCs which revealed a better lifetime of 0.0349 sec for lemon leaf and 0.0143 sec for onion peel extracted DSSCs. The preliminary photovoltaic results indicated the potential of Lemon leaf and Onion peel extracts as eco-friendly and cost-effective natural photosensitizers for DSSCs using Platinum free counter electrode.</span></p>