Evaluation of dye sensitized solar cells based on a pigment obtained from Antarctic Streptomyces fildesensis

•Antarctic bacterial strain So13.3 produces a pigment with DSSC sensitizer activity.•Pigment from Antarctic bacteria can produce energy and is a type of melanin.•Pigment-producing microorganisms from Antarctic can be a source for DSSC use. The study of bacterial pigment for their application in DSSC is an in-development area of solar energy. However, studies on bacterial pigments for application in solar cells are scarce. We evaluated the use of a pigment obtained from the Antarctic So13.3 bacterial strain as a sensitizer in DSSC. Based on the sequence of the 16S gene, the So13.3 strain was identified as Streptomyces fildesensis. The bacterial pigment was characterized by UV–Vis and Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Results indicate that the pigment has very similar characteristics to melanin. DSSC showed the best performance at a concentration of 6500 (μg/mL), obtaining a voltage of 493 [mV], a current density of 0.091 [mA/cm2], 0.026% efficiency and a 0.579 Filling Factor (FF). Considering that there are few studies on bacterial pigments applied in DSSC, we demonstrate the importance of focusing research on pigment-producing microorganism isolation and evaluating their potential use in DSSC.