Regular Article

Fabrication and characterization of ITO/ZnO/anthraquinone solid dye-sensitized solar cells

¹ Laboratory of Materials Energy and the Environment (LaMEE), Faculty of Science Semlalia, University of Cadi Ayyad, P.O. Box 2390, Marrakesh 40000, Morocco
² Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan
³ Laboratory of coordination chemistry and catalysis, Faculty of Sciences Semlalia, University of Cadi Ayyad, P. O. Box 2390, Marrakech 40000, Morocco
⁴ National school of applied sciences, Ibn Zohr university, Avenue Tamesoult, Agadir 80000, Morocco

^* e-mail: lahcen.nkhaili@uca.ac.ma

Received: 15 March 2022
Received in final form: 23 April 2022
Accepted: 5 May 2022
Published online: 8 August 2022

Abstract

The use of natural dyes as sensitizers in organic solar cells is getting more interest due to its green nature, nontoxicity, low cost and ecofriendly materials. In this paper, two anthraquinone/zinc oxide-based dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were prepared by a simple and low cost method. The anthraquinone was extracted from Aloe-vera plant and was deposited as a thin film to study its structural and optical properties. ZnO nanoparticles and nanorods were prepared by the RF sputtering and electrodeposition methods, respectively. The Glass/ITO/ZnO/anthraquinone/Al structure exhibited a promising photovoltaic activity.