Assessment of the Efficacy of a Natural Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Employing Spathiphyllum wallisii with a ZnO Nanostructured Photoanode

The paper evaluates the performance of Spathiphyllum wallisii-based DSSC with ZnO nanostruc-tured photoanode. The dye has a wider UV-vis absorption spectrum (300-365nm, 390-410nm, 412-480nm) and higher wavelengths (λ=660-680nm), with peaks at 250nm, 331nm, 406nm, 455nm, and a small peak at 667nm. It can generate power in cloudy weather or diffused solar radiation because it absorbs UV rays broadly. As an indoor plant, Spathiphyllum can generate electricity at night with artificial light. The dye's optical band gap energy and energy band position are determined by cyclic voltammetry (CV), ensuring its stability and high electron affinity for light harvesting and electron transfer from dye to semiconductor or interface. A cost-effective chemi-cal bath deposition (CBD) method deposits nanostructured ZnO on FTO-based transparent con-ducting glass. Unidirectional ZnO nanorods with hexagonal wurtzite patterns and nano steps are shown in scanning electron microscope images. The ZnO nanorod averages 3 µm in length and 200 nm in diameter. The diffused reflectance spectra (DRS) of ZnO have full reflection after 400nm, but dye anchoring reduces it to 48%. EIS was used to determine charge transfer re-sistance, total bulk resistance, and recombination loss for the fabricated DSSC using Nyquist and Bode plots. The developed DSSC's I-V and P-V curves are measured under 75 mW/cm2 simulated light source and 20 mW/cm2 light condition. The dye-sensitized cell converts visible light to electricity efficiently at 1.2% and 0.6% with respective light sources. This paper evaluates the structural, morphological, optical, and electrochemical attributes of the dye and dye-sensitized solar cells to determine their suitability.