46 † Corresponding author © 2016 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved EFFICIENCY ENHANCEMENT OF DYE SENSITIZED SOLAR CELLS WITH A LOW CO CO-ADSORBANT IN N719 DYE Ramshah Ahmad Toor 1 † --- Muhammad Hassan Sayyad 2 --- Nazia Nasr 3 --- Sarah Sajjad 4 --- Syed Afaq Ali Shah - Tehreem Manzoor 6 1,2,3,4,5,6 Faculty of Engineering Sciences, GIK Institute, Pakistan ABSTRACT Sunlight is a limitless form of renewable and clean energy which is amply accessible. Economic consumption of solar energy can boundlessly fulfil the energy demand. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are acknowledged as third generation solar cell technology because of their environmental friendliness, cost effectiveness, simple fabrication and capability to be manufactured on huge substrates. The prospective for development of various Dye sensitized solar cell components is massive. We have under taken a series of investigations on the photovoltaic performance enhancement of DSSCs. In this work, effect of chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) in N719 dye solution as a co-adsorbent and low cost additive was investigated. The cells were fabricated with and without the addition of CDCA. The co-adsorbent significantly improved the photovoltage open circuit (Voc), photocurrent density (Jsc) and the solar energy power conversion efficiency (). The impedance spectroscopy is also discussed in the paper. Keywords: Chenodeoxycholic acid, N719, Low cost performance efficiency of DSSC, DSSCs, CV measurement of DSSC, Addive in N719 dye. Received: 23 August 2016/ Revised: 23 September 2016/ Accepted: 8 October 2016/ Published: 19 October 2016 Contribution/ Originality This study is one of very few studies which have investigated the effect of CDCA additive on ruthenium dye. The paper compares the results from existing data and shows an enhancement in the photovoltaic properties in the results section. The impedance spectroscopy included is studied for the first time for the dye with chenodeoxycholic acid. 1. INTRODUCTION Dye sensitized photovoltaic technology substitute to thin-film and silicon-based solar cells, are important for the large scale fabrication of low-cost photovoltaic cells that can be developed commercially sustainable. DSSCs was first introduced by O’Regan and Gratzel in 1991, gained significant interest of researchers and acknowledged as third generation cells subjected to their low cost manufacturing process, simple and easy fabrication process, abundant options of efficiency enhancement and capability to be fabricated on large-area flexible substrates (O’Regan and Grätzel, 1991; Kay and Gräetzel, 1993; Grätzel, 2005; Ardo and Meyer, 2009; Sudhan et al., 2015). Its structural configuration is comprised of a photoanode-dye attached , redox electrolyte ( I - /I 3 - ) along with a cathode as shown in figure 1. The photoanode is a dye sensitized mesoporous film of semiconductor oxide mostly titanium dioxide, which is sputtered on fluorine-doped tin dioxide (FTO) glass. The summary of chemical reactions taking place in a DSSC is shown in table 1. International Journal of Sustainable Energy and Environmental Research 2016 Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 46-50 ISSN(e): 2306-6253 ISSN(p): 2312-5764 DOI: 10.18488/journal.13/2016.5.3/13.3.46.50 © 2016 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved