Influence of polar solvents on photovoltaic performance of Monascusred dye-sensitized solar cell

• Adsorption kinetics of Monascus red dye as sensitizer was investigated.
• Electrochemical properties in Monascus DSSC were found to be solvent-dependent.
• Photovoltaic efficiencies were dependent on the adsorption characteristics.

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were assembled using natural dyes extracted from Monascus red pigment as a sensitizer. In this work, we studied the adsorption characteristics for harvesting sunlight and the electrochemical behavior for electron transfer in Monascus red DSSC using different solvents. The effect of polar aprotic and protic solvents including water, ethanol, and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) used in the sensitization process was investigated for the improvement in conversion efficiency of a cell. As for the Monascus red dye-sensitized electrode in DMSO solvent, the solar cell yields a short-circuit current density (Jsc) of 1.23 mA/cm2, a photovoltage (Voc) of 0.75 V, and a fill factor of 0.72, corresponding to an energy conversion efficiency (η) of 0.66%.

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