The effectiveness of melanin from the fungi Sclerotium cepivorum, Aspergillus niger, and Albifimbria verrucaria for use in dye-sensitive solar cells (DSSCs)

Description of the subject. Novel sensitizer environmentally friendly natural pigments with suitable colors for dye-sensitive solar cells (DSSCs) are required. Here, melanized structures to obtain pigments formed by Aspergillus niger, Sclerotium cepivorum, and Albifimbria verrucaria, were used. Objectives. The goal of this study was to build DSSC solar cells to study the operation of these extracted melanins from these fungi. Method. Melanin extraction from fungal structures was carried out using KOH-HCl and NaOH-HCl and applied in the DSSC. Results. The melanin from A. verrucaria had the best fill factor (FF) (0.718), followed by that from S. cepivorum and A. niger (0.708 and 0.525). Sclerotium cepivorum melanin had the highest effectiveness (0.320%), followed by A. verrucaria (0.160%) and A. niger (0.149%). Conclusions. The I-V and V-P curves in the evaluation tests showed that fungal melanin behaved as a semiconductor; as a result, the development of DSSC-type solar cell devices employing extracts from different sources of fungal melanin appears promising.