Adsorption Equilibrium and Kinetics of Gardenia Blue on TiO2 Photoelectrode for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

Nanostructured porous TiO2 paste was deposited on the FTO conductive glass using squeeze printing technique in order to obtain a TiO2 thin film with a thickness of 10 μm and an area of 4 cm2. Gardenia blue (GB) extracted from Gardenia jasminode Ellis was employed as the natural dye for a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). Adsorption studies indicated that the maximum adsorption capacity of GB on the surface of TiO2 thin film was approximately 417 mg GB/g TiO2 photoelectrode. The commercial and natural dyes, N-719 and GB, respectively, were employed to measure the adsorption kinetic data, which were analyzed by pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order models. The energy conversion efficiency of the TiO2 electrode with successive adsorptions of GB dye was about 0.2%.