Gold nanoparticles bind to porphyrins. A potential dye-sensitized solar cell

Abstract

Porphyrins could be used for designing dye sensitized solar cells. The correlation between their band gap HOMO-LUMO and the conduction band of the semiconductor (TiO2) allows the electron transfer from the dye to the electrode, through the semiconductor. Our work reported here has revealed that a strong and large absorption band is obtained when a complex between gold nanoparticles (GNP) and porphyrin dye is formed. © 2009 IOP Publishing Ltd.