Conductivity study of chlorophyll: potential solar panel / Alya Izzati Harme

The current dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) that is widely used as the renewable energy resource to overcome the depletion of fossil fuels employs the synthetic dyes such as the ruthenium-based sensitizers. However, there are several limitations and constrains that the ruthenium-based sensitizers portrays which are much related to the environmental and health impacts. Furthermore, DSSC using ruthenium complexes as sensitizer are tedious to fabricate, plus they are expensive. These problems have led the researchers to find an alternative to improve the DSSC technology in terms of its performance as well as its sustainability. The aim of this research is therefore to investigate the ability of the chlorophyll extracted from oil palm trees, Elaeis Guineensis, to conduct electricity in order to substitute the conventional dye used in current dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). This is because the energy conversion performance of natural dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC) mostly relies on sensitizer. The chlorophyll was extracted using 96% of ethanol as the chemical method in addition of the mechanical method which is by grinding. The extracted chlorophyll was dried in an oven at 80°C. About 2 g of dry mass chlorophyll were obtained from 250 ml of extracted chlorophyll after drying. The functional anchoring groups of the E. guineensis chlorophyll were analysed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and it was found that there were eight functional groups. 5 mg of dried chlorophyll was mixed with deionized water and 5 mg of carboxymethylcellulose powder which were then pressed to form 2 cm by 2 cm size of chlorophyll gel. Lastly, the chlorophyll was measured its conductivity using a multimeter. The amperage measured from the chlorophyll gel is 0.00018 A which indicates that the chlorophyll gel is capable to conduct an electricity, hence has the potential to substitute the synthetic dye sensitizer in DSSC.