IIT Hyderabad Scientists Came Up with Inexpensive and Environment-Friendly Solar Cells Using Vermilion

When it comes to inventions and innovations, The Indian Institute to technology always takes a step ahead. Most of the times solar cells require a lot of heat to process which leads to carbon footprints and in order to avoid all of that the scientists of IIT Hyderabad have developed something incredible. Cost-Effective Way of Developing Solar Cells Which Are Also Eco-Friendly With the help of kumkum dye, the scientists have developed solar cells which are environment-friendly and are also cost-effective. Professor Sai Santosh Kumar Raavi of Physics department, IIT Hyderabad stated that the magenta-dye, New Fuchsin which is employed by his team is used to make vermilion when grounded by turmeric. It’s not only cheap and non-toxic but, is also soluble in water and does not even degrade in its presence as reported by PTI. The Components The dye-sensitized solar cell has a monolayer of the dye molecule, titanium dioxide, and a liquid electrolyte. The dye molecules absorb sunlight and get excited, then the electrons from the excited dye molecule get injected into the conduction band of TiO2.  While elaborating, Ravi said: "The electrons are transported to the charge collector. The dye cation (after losing its electron) takes an electron from the surrounding electron-rich liquid electrolyte. The counter electrode, typically, is platinum-coated ITO.” PTI reported. The cost-effective solar cells are going to be highly beneficial for the environment and we are glad that the scientists of IIT Hyderabad came up with something like this.