The preparation of ZnO-based dye-sensitized solar cells using Rhus, Linaria and Punica

This paper focuses on fabricating ZnO-based dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) utilizing three types of dyes derived from Rhus, Linaria and Punica flowers. The ZnO thin films were prepared on tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) coated glass substrates at 70 °C according to successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method. Organic sensitizers were extracted from Rhus, Linaria and Punica flowers using ethanol solvent. The fabricated solar cells were characterized by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), UV-vis spectroscopy and fourier transformation infrared (FTIR) techniques. The maximum photovoltaic values were obtained from ZnO/Linaria-based DSSC which exhibits current density (J sc ) of 0.328 mA/cm−2, open-circuit voltage (V oc ) of 1 V, fill factor (FF) of 64% and energy conversion efficiency (η) of 0.210% having the minimum thickness of 1.381 μm among all the DSSCs studied in this work, though. Energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS) analysis indicated that the weight contribution of oxygen for Linaria DSSC is 53.30%, and this value is higher than Rhus and Punica DSSCs. The results suggest that Linaria dye-sensitizer can be a good candidate for minimizing the thickness of the photoelectrode films and improving the performance of DSSCs.