Characteristics of curcumin dye used as a sensitizer in dye-sensitized solar cells

Dye-sensitized solar cells are the closest mankind has come to replicating nature?s photosynthesis. The type of a dye influences the efficiency of these cells. In this paper we studied curcumin dye as a sensitizer in dye-sensitized solar cells and compared it with most often used cyanidin. The results have shown that curcumin has higher efficiency and higher absorption in the visible part of the spectrum compared to cyanidin. Simulation models of dye molecules, curcumin and cyanidin, are deprotonated upon adsorption on the titanium dioxide surface. The energy levels obtained from the calculation indicate a higher probability of electron transition from molecule to titanium dioxide surface in case of curcumin than in case of cyanidin. Based on these results, we concluded that curcumin dye has better properties as sensitizer in dye-sensitized solar cells.