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The performance of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) depends on the collective contribution from its constituents which include the nanoparticle film, dye, electrolyte, and the counter electrode. In this report, we have tried to elucidate the varying performance of the TiO2 based DSSCs standardised using N719 dye and Platinum as counter electrode with various electrolytes including quasi static electrolytes. We have also evaluated the photovoltaic characteristics of the cells employing different morphological structured TiO2 photoanode. The DSSC based on the hierarchical anatase TiO2 nanotree photoelectrode showed the highest light-to-electricity conversion efficiency of 10.2%.

In this article, we have investigated the effect of betanin natural dye extracted from red beetroot on nonlinear optical properties of ZnO nanoplates embedded in polymeric matrices through the Z-scan technique using an Nd: YAG laser (532 nm, 7 ns, 10 Hz). We observed reverse saturable absorption (RSA) at 532 nm for dye and ZnO nanoplates. A strong influence on RSA behavior of nanoplates-PVA matrix was observed by adding betanin natural dye. The influence of betanin on the nonlinear character of ZnO-PVA system leads to saturable absorption and again to RSA on increasing input fluence. Such a change over in the sign of the nonlinearity is due to the interplay of the exciton bleaching and optical limiting mechanisms, and probably due the presence of sucrose. Theoretical analysis has been performed using a model based on nonlinear absorption coefficient and saturation intensity. The result of present study gives an additional mechanism for the gain enhancement in dye doped ZnO matrix.