@Article{JRM.2014.634142,
AUTHOR = {Mario Alejandro Mejía Escobar, Frankin Jaramillo},
TITLE = {Natural Dyes Extraction, Stability and Application to  Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells},
JOURNAL = {Journal of Renewable Materials},
VOLUME = {3},
YEAR = {2015},
NUMBER = {4},
PAGES = {281--291},
URL = {http://www.techscience.com/jrm/v3n4/49559},
ISSN = {2164-6341},
ABSTRACT = {In recent years, the development of new materials has contributed markedly to improving the efficiency of 
dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Mesoporous semiconductors, solid electrolyte, non-conventional catalysts 
and synthetic dyes without ruthenium have been the focus of study. With respect to the last, lanthanides and 
porphyrins have presented good properties, but these elements have the same disadvantage as rutheniumbased dyes; being complicated to synthesize and very expensive. These limitations have stimulated much 
research in the use of natural dyes as sensitizers due to their exceptional photoelectochemical properties and 
low cost. Furthermore, they are regarded as renewable and environmentally friendly materials. For this reason, 
the application of dyes extracted from annatto seeds (<i>Bixa orellana</i>), beetroot (<i>beta vulgaris</i>) and wild bilberry 
(<i>Vaccinium meridionale Swartz</i>) peels was explored to fabricate DSSCs. The results show that fabricated solar cells 
with an N3/annatto cocktail (1:0.10) could be comparable with a device made of 100% Ruthenium synthetic dye.},
DOI = {10.7569/JRM.2014.634142}
}