{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,22]],"date-time":"2026-09-22T05:05:23Z","timestamp":1790053523427,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":72,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"18","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]],"date-time":"2026-09-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789689600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Universidad T\u00e9cnica Particular de Loja","award":["PROY_INV_CBA_2025_4634"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PROY_INV_CBA_2025_4634"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04dvbth24","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Universidad T\u00e9cnica Particular de Loja","award":["VIN-56"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["VIN-56"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04dvbth24","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"award":["PROY_INV_CBA_2025_4634"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PROY_INV_CBA_2025_4634"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04dvbth24","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["VIN-56"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["VIN-56"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04dvbth24","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Molecules"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) using natural pigments offer a low-cost, non-toxic alternative to ruthenium dyes, but fungal sensitizers remain underexplored relative to plant-derived pigments. This study reports, for the first time, the phenoxazine pigments cinnabarin and cinnabaric acid from Pycnoporus sanguineus extract (PSE) as DSSC sensitizers, paired with a ZnTiO3\/TiO2 heterojunction photoanode designed to suppress interfacial recombination. The extract was characterized by HPLC-DAD and FTIR, and the semiconductors ZnTiO3\/TiO2 (ZTO) and TiO2 (TO) by XRD and SEM. Four device configurations (TO, PSE\/TO, ZTO\/TO, PSE\/ZTO\/TO) were evaluated photovoltaically and compared statistically (ANOVA, Tukey\/Duncan), while DFT calculations (Gaussian, VASP) modeled dye electronic structure, band-edge alignment, and surface adsorption. Efficiency increased significantly across all configurations, from 0.06% (TO) to 0.38% (PSE\/ZTO\/TO). Band-alignment calculations revealed a thermodynamically favorable injection pathway from the dyes into ZnTiO3, with TiO2 acting as a unidirectional barrier against backtransfer, consistent with the dye-independent increase in open-circuit voltage observed experimentally. Adsorption modeling revealed a shared vertical anchoring geometry with differentiated surface selectivity between the two dyes. These results establish P. sanguineus phenoxazines as a competitive, mechanistically characterized addition to the limited catalog of fungal DSSC sensitizers and support ZnTiO3\/TiO2 heterostructure engineering as a key strategy for improving fungal-pigment DSSC performance.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/molecules31183310","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]],"date-time":"2026-09-21T14:12:09Z","timestamp":1789999929000},"page":"3310","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Phenoxazine-Type Pigments from Pycnoporus sanguineus as ZnTiO3\/TiO2 Sensitizers for DSSCs"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"31","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3136-4419","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ximena","family":"Jaramillo-Fierro","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Qu\u00edmica y Producci\u00f3n, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad T\u00e9cnica Particular de Loja, San Cayetano Alto, Loja 1101608, Ecuador"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"resources","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"software","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"El\u00edas","family":"Aguilar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Carrera de Ingenier\u00eda Qu\u00edmica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad T\u00e9cnica Particular de Loja, San Cayetano Alto, Loja 1101608, Ecuador"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"John","family":"Ram\u00f3n","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Carrera de Ingenier\u00eda Qu\u00edmica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad T\u00e9cnica Particular de Loja, San Cayetano Alto, Loja 1101608, Ecuador"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1956-2882","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Dar\u00edo","family":"Cruz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Microbial Systems Ecology and Evolution Research Group, Department of Biological Sciences, Biology School, Universidad T\u00e9cnica Particular de Loja, San Cayetano Alto s\/n C.P., Loja 1101608, Ecuador"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"software","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"resources","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"101287","article-title":"Beyond 3rd Generation Solar Cells and the Full Spectrum Project. 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