Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC) have been extensively studied due their ability to generate electricity from solar energy via electron injection from an excited state dye sensitizer molecule into the conduction band of a wide-band-gap semiconductor. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a common material used as a semiconductor for the DSSC circuit. Azo-dyes, such as bromothymol blue and methyl red could be useful as dye sensitizers because they contain specific anchoring groups, such as sulfonic acid and carboxylic acid which are able to chemisorb to the surface of the TiO2. The structures of bromothymol blue and methyl red are altered in varying pH values which can be observed visually because their color changes. Bromothymol blue has the color variations of yellow to green to blue as its pH changes from acidic to neutral to basic. Methyl red changes from pink to orange to yellow as its pH changes from acidic to neutral to basic. Raman spectroscopy (Bruker Senterra confocal microscope) will be used to investigate both the dye-semiconductor interface and changes in the TiO2 structure due to interaction with the dye and visible light. UV-Vis spectroscopy (Carey 5000 UV-Vis-NIR spectrometer) will be used to investigate the absorbance spectra of the dyes at different pH values, both in solution and bound to TiO2.

Study of the interaction between titanium dioxide and azo-dyes (Bromothymol blue and Methyl red) at different pH values by using UV-Vis and Raman spectroscopy

256th National Meeting (2018)

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