FABRICATION OF DYE-SENSITIZED SOLAR CELLS USING NITROGEN DOPED CARBON QUANTUM DOTS AND ORGANIC DYE EXTRACTED FROM PURPLE CABBAGE

Abstract

The emergence of Nitrogen Doped Carbon Quantum Dots and natural dyes as sensitizers for fabricating, Dye sensitized solar cells, have provided an environmental friendly alternative means for generating clean energy. In this research, three monolithic dye sensitized solar cells were fabricated from NCQDT and natural dye extracted from purple cabbage, using Doctor blade technique. The optical properties of the dyes and NCQDT were investigated using UV-Spectrometer. The results of the band gap energy is 2.00 ev, 1.20ev, and 1.75ev respectively. The Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and X-ray Diffractometer, were used to study the structures of the samples and the result shows that they are polycrystalline in nature with average crystalline size of 1-9 nm. The electrical properties as demonstrated by I–V curves, show that the conversion efficiency (7) of the NCQDT, purple cabbage and NCQDT +purple cabbage is 4.17%, 1.06% and 3.63% respectively