An experimental and DFT study on novel dyes incorporated with natural dyes on titanium dioxide (TiO2) towards solar cell application

Muhammad, Kashif and Zainab, Ngaini and Angelina Viviana, Harry and Vekariya, Rohit L. and Awais, Ahmad and Zhiqiang, Zuo and Siti Kudnie, Sahari and Shahid, Hussain and Zuhaib, Ashfaq Khan and Abdullah, Alarifi (2020) An experimental and DFT study on novel dyes incorporated with natural dyes on titanium dioxide (TiO2) towards solar cell application. Applied Physics A, 126 (716). pp. 1-13. ISSN 1432-0630

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Abstract

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin films were deposited on fluorine tin oxide (FTO) coated glass substrate using spin-coating techniques and as-deposited films were sensitized with various dyes. A series of azo derivatives (2, 5a-b) having different structures were successfully prepared through the process of the azo coupling reaction. KAZO 6 was successfully synthesized by esterification of kojic acid obtained from sago waste with azo 5a. These azo dye were examined using density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) to obtain the vertical excitation, electron distribu-tion, energy levels, band gap, and light-harvesting efficiency in the ground and excited state. The obtained values exhibited a good correlation with the experimental values. Efficiency enhancement was reported by the incorporation of KAZO 6 with curcumin extracted from turmeric. Spectroscopy and optical properties of synthesized dyes were characterized using CHNS elemental analysis, FTIR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and UV–Vis spectros copies. KAZO 6 displayed an efficiency of 1.59% compared to azo derivatives 0.13–1.12%. The efficiency of KAZO 6 enhanced from 1.59 to 1.74% with the incorporation of turmeric dye.

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