Impacts of Temperature on the Stability of Tropical Plant Pigments as Sensitizers for Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

[摘要] Natural dyes have become a viable alternative to expensive organic sensitizers because of their low cost of production, abundance in supply, and eco-friendliness. We evaluated 35 native plants containing anthocyanin pigments as potential sensitizers for DSSCs.Melastoma malabathricum(fruit pulp),Hibiscus rosa-sinensis(flower), andCodiaeum variegatum(leaves) showed the highest absorption peaks. Hence, these were used to determine anthocyanin content and stability based on the impacts of storage temperature.Melastoma malabathricumfruit pulp exhibited the highest anthocyanin content (8.43 mg/L) followed byH. rosa-sinensisandC. variegatum. Significantly greater stability of extracted anthocyanin pigment was shown when all three were stored at 4∘C. The highest half-life periods for anthocyanin inM. malabathricum,H. rosa-sinensis,andC. variegatumwere 541, 571, and 353 days at 4∘C. These were rapidly decreased to 111, 220, and 254 days when stored at 25∘C. The photovoltaic efficiency ofM. malabathricumwas1.16%, while the values forH. rosa-sinensisandC. variegatumwere 0.16% and 1.08%, respectively. Hence,M. malabathricumfruit pulp extracts can be further evaluated as an alternative natural sensitizer for DSSCs.

[学科分类] 生物化学/生物物理