Improvement of the Performance of Purple Carrot Sensitized Solar Cells by Acidic Treatment of FTO Glass Substrate and TiO2 Film

I.M. Radwan a, S.A. Tayaa,b, T.M. El-Ageza,b, M.S. Abdel-Latifb,c and H.S. Ghamria,b aPhysics Department, Islamic University of Gaza, Gaza, Palestine bRenewable Energy Center, Islamic University of Gaza, Gaza, Palestine cChemistry Department, Islamic University of Gaza, Gaza, Palestine

Received: October 10, 2015; In final form: June 10, 2016

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In this paper, dye sensitized solar cells were prepared using titanium dioxide (TiO2) and natural dye extracted from purple carrot. The performance of dye sensitized solar cells was significantly improved through the pre- and post-treatments of the fluorinated tin oxide (FTO) glass substrate and the TiO2 film using hydrochloric (HCl), phosphoric (H3PO4), and nitric (HNO3) acids. The results showed that the pre-treatment of the FTO with H3PO4 and the post-treatment of TiO2 with HNO3 resulted in improved efficiencies of 130% and 250%, respectively.

DOI: 10.12693/APhysPolA.130.795 PACS numbers: 88.40.-j, 88.40.H-