Betanin dye extracted from ayrampo () seeds to develop dye-sensitized solar cells.

Pigments extracted from ayrampo seeds of the Peruvian-native prickly pear () were used in dye-sensitized solar cells with promising efficiencies. The performance of the solar cells was then improved the addition of citric acid to stabilise the photosensitive dye, and an efficiency of 1.41% was achieved with current output remaining stable after 7 days. Upon testing in low-light conditions, the solar conversion efficiency of devices increased to 4%. This paper not only highlights the potential of natural sensitizers in DSSCs but also shows that simple extraction and gentle handling methods can contribute to the device performance.