Refining of red spinach extract for the enhanced photovoltaic performance of natural dye-based DSSC and degradation study

In this work, natural dye (anthocyanin) was extracted from red spinach (Amaranthus dubius) and refined by solvent extraction process which was used as a sensitizer to enhance the overall cell performance of the prepared DSSC. Unwanted impurities have been separated with the organic layer from the bottom of the separatory funnel and refined anthocyanin dye extract was collected from the aqueous layer. Extract of crude red spinach dye-sensitized DSSCs have shown the cell parameters of short circuit current (I_sc) = 0.642 mA, open-circuit voltage (V_oc) = of 0.329 V, fill factor (FF) = 0.434 and efficiency= 0.091%. For refined anthocyanin dye extract, the photoelectrical properties of DSSCs were recorded as, I_sc varied from 0.642 mA to 1.385 mA, V_oc ranged from 0.329 V to 0.379 V, and FF ranged from 0.434 to 0.469. DSSC sensitized with purified anthocyanin dye showed an efficiency of 0.247%, which was almost 2.7 times higher than that of the crude red spinach extract (without refinement) sensitized DSSC's cell conversion efficiency. Finally, degradation in the cell efficiency of crude and refined anthocyanin dye based DSSCs were measured after 48 h.