Fabrication of highly efficient surface plasmon-enhanced dye sensitized solar cell

Abstract

We have enhanced the photoconversion efficiency of surface plasmon-enhanced dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) by incorporating anisotropic Ag nanoparticleswhich localized surface plasmonswere capable of enhancing theoverall visible range into conventional TiO2 DSSCs. Anisotropic Ag nanoparticles with plate geometries were prepared via geometric control in the presence of citrate stabilizers, exhibiting various modes of surface plasmon resonances covering an overall visible range from 400 to 700 nm. As a result, the photocurrent density of DSSCs was increased greatly by increasing adsorption of dye molecules. The surface of anisotropic Ag nanoparticles was coated with TiO2 to prevent metal corrosion and charge recombination by post-treatment of TiO2/Ag nanoparticle films with titanium(IV)isoproxide.By incorporating even a small amount (0.3 wt% to that of TiO2) of colloidal anisotropic particles into TiO2 DSSCs the photoconversion efficiency was improvedconsiderably from 8.0 to 9.6%.