Conductivity study of chlorophyll: potential solar panel: article / Alya Izzati Harme and Prof Dr. Ku Halim Ku Hamid

Aim of this research is to investigate the ability of the chlorophyll extracted from oil palm trees, Elaeis Guineensis, to conduct electricity in order to replace the conventional dye used in current dyesensitized 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% ethanol and was dried in an oven at 80°C. About 2 g of chlorophyll were obtained 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. 10 mg of dried chlorophyll was mixed with deionized water and 10 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 0.00018A which indicates that the chlorophyll gel is capable to conduct an electricity, hence has the potential to substitute the synthetic dye sensitizer in DSSC.