Investigation of the Structural, Optical, Electrical, and Dielectrical Properties of Aloe Vera Leaf Exudate

Abstract

Abstract Organic solar cells are considered to be the promising solar technology for the coming year because of their ease of manufacture. In the present study, the Aloe Latex as a yellow orange Solid (ALS) collected from the leaves of Aloe Vera plant (aloe barbadensis miller) was used as a natural and cheap sensitizer thin film. The ALS powder was analyzed using X-ray diffraction,UHPLC-MS, and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy to determine the chemical composition and the structural properties. While the impedance spectroscopy was performed for the dielectrical properties. The optical properties were detemined using UV–Vis absorption of the ALS thin film deposited in a glass. For the first trial, a planar heterojunction solar cell using zinc oxide (ZnO) thin film as an electron selective layer was build. The band gap was found to be 1.88 eV. The electrical properties of the investigated cell by the current–voltage (I–V) measurements showed an open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.74 V, an important efficiency of 0.50%, and a great fill factor (FF) of 0.70.