Jibrin Alhaji Yabagi

The Effect on Extracting Solvents using Natural Dye Extracts from Hyphaene thebaica for Dye-sensitized Solar Cells

This study covers the fabrication and characterization of dye sensitized solar cell using Hyphaene thebaica as the natural dye sensitizer for DSSCs. Ethanol and water in separate container was used as the extracting solvent for the natural dyes. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) was deposited on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) conductive glass forming a TiO2 thin film, underwent sintering at 400oC for 40 minutes. The photo electrochemical performance of the dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) based on the doum palm pericarp shows open circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.37 V and 0.50 V, and short circuit current density (Jsc) of 0.005 mA/cm2 and 0.010 mA/cm2 for ethanol and water extracts respectively. This study further inspected the fill factor as 0.63 and 0.66 for the ethanol and water extract respectively. The conversion efficiency for the ethanol extract was 0.012% and water extract is up to 0.033% under light intensity of 1000 m/Wm2 (AM 1.5).

Review on Material Synthesis and Characterization of Sodium (Na) Super-Ionic Conductor (NASICON)

Sodium (Na) Super Ionic Conductor (NASICON) has general formula Na1+ x Zr2P3- xSi x O12 (0 ≤x ≤ 3) derived from its parent compound, sodium zirconium phosphate NaZr2(PO4)3 (NZP) which belong to a rhombohedral crystal structure. This material consists of three-dimensional structure with interesting features such as low thermal expansion coefficient, thermal stability, gas sensor and nuclear waste immobilization that make it viable for industrial applications. Current study presents comprehensive studies on the synthesis and essential characteristics required to understand the theory behind the mechanism that justifies the study of NASICON structure and its application such as lithium ion rechargeable battery, gas sensor, and nuclear waste immobilization and so on.