Preparation and characterization of high performance dye sensitized solar cells with silver nanoparticles in nanocomposite photoanode

Abstract

Surface plasmon resonance is the effect of electron oscillation in a structure stimulated by incident light. When noble materials such as Ag, Au or Cu are added into the titania (compact or mesoporous) structure of the sensitized solar cell, the plasmonic effect of such materials will result to an improved performance of the device. Placing AgNPs at different position will produce a variety of result. In this work the systematic design and formation of plasmonic dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) by integrating AgNPs nanoparticles (NPs) in two distinct configurations; on the c − TiO2 and on m − TiO2 were reported. The power conversion efficiency (PCE), Jsc and Voc of the reference device shows a value of 0.36 %, 1.89 mAcm−2 and 0.45 V. Upon introduction of AgNPs on the c − TiO2, a PCE of 0.64 %, Jsc of 2.53 mAcm−2 and Voc of 0.46V were recorded, which improved the PCE ∼63.90 % over that of the prestine device. When AgNPs is introduced on the m − TiO2, a PCE of 0.71 %, Jsc of 2.83 mAcm−2 and Voc of 0.46 V were obtained which results to increase in power conversion efficiency from 0.36 % to 0.71 %, demonstrating ≈ 1.97 time’s enhancement, compared with the reference device without the metal NPs. The improvement is attributed to an increase in photocurrent density due to enhanced light harvesting by silver nanoparticles.