Characterisation and Utilisation of Bacterial Pigments for Dye-Sensitised Solar Cell Development Applications
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UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SARAWAK
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Dye-sensitised Solar Cell (DSSC) is a new type of solar cells that uses dye to absorb sunlight and convert it into electrical energy. Comprehensive works on the use of plant and synthetic pigments as dye sensitisers in DSSC were evidently reported. However, harmful effects of ruthenium on environment and large number of plants needed for pigment extraction have increased the interest in the use of bacterial pigments as dye sensitisers. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the potential of bacterial pigments as dye sensitisers for DSSC. The work focused on three pigmented bacteria namely Serratia marcescens, Chromobacterium violaceum and Ralstonia sp. The bacterial pigments were extracted and were subjected to spectra analysis for pigment characterisation. Based on UV-vis spectrophotometry and FTIR analysis the pigmnets from S. marcescens, C. violaceum and Ralstonia sp. were identified as prodigiosin, violacein and carotenoid, respectively. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was performed to characterise the behaviour of bacterial pigments adsorbed in titanium dioxide. The efficiency of the DSSC converting sunlight energy to electrical energy established using prodigiosin, carotenoid, and violacein were 0.0242%, 0.0382%, and 0.0806%, respectively which indicate promising applications of all dyes the aforementioned for DSSC. This work gives useful insights into the potential of alternative bacterial dyes for the development of DSSC.