Salsabila Ahmad
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Preferred name
Salsabila Ahmad
Official Name
Salsabila, Ahmad
Alternative Name
Ahmad, S.
Main Affiliation
Scopus Author ID
57210229972
Researcher ID
AAN-5662-2020

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  • Publication
    Organic solar cell performance using Chlorophyll structure based on a new electron movement mechanism
    ( 2020)
    Salsabila Ahmad
    Chlorophyll (Chl) molecules are the most efficient light-harvesting pigments found in nature. They can transfer excitation energy within chlorophyll molecules of up to 90% efficiency. Therefore, utilizing this property could lead to new materials and devices. However, due to small diffusion length and low carrier mobilities, electrons and holes cannot travel far to the electrodes. Using chlorophyll as an acceptor material and ferrocene (Fc) as the donor, this study developed and tested a new idea of a new electron movement mechanism. Chlorophyll is chosen as the initial material since it has plenty of conjugated double bonds rich with charge clouds. Meanwhile, ferrocene as an exceptionally versatile organometallic material is chosen not only as of the donor but potentially is expected to bond with chlorophyll to engage electrons from chlorophyll molecule, thus bridging them to the respective electrodes due to its electron-deficient nature. The hypothesis of this research is since chlorophyll is an efficient energy converter in its natural form, it can also generate electricity effectively. Only, the function of the protein in plants’ chloroplast is substituted to channel the energy out of the chlorophyll structure. This research aims to produce a binding between the chlorophyll molecule and the protein substitute using ferrocene to test the theory. Next, the research presents step by step methodology, starting from the extraction of the chlorophyll, formation of the Fc- Chl complex, up to the establishment of the complete solar cell ready for the efficiency test. Therefore, this thesis presents the results in three aspects; chemical characterization, surface morphology characterization, and electrical characterization. The first result confirms the chemical bonding needed for the new electron movement mechanism. It validates the improved properties in the absorption spectra of the new material compared to the initial material. Secondly, the morphology shows small and bicontinuous domains for charge transport advantages. Moreover, further magnification image shows signs of crystallization, that is known beneficial for high stability and high mobility. Lastly, the electrical characterization of the new material shows the best performance using silver (Ag) cathode compared to other metal coating layer. The result gave Voc, Jsc, FF and η of 0.170 V, 1.00 mAcm-2, 0.646 and 0.110 %, respectively.