Plasmonic gold nanoparticles coated TiO₂ photoanode for efficiency enhancement in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs)

Abstract

In this work, gold nanoparticles (NPs) of 100 nm in size were added to the active layer of DSSC. The electrolyte is a gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) containing PEO, PhCh, TPAI, BMII, I₂, DMF, EC, TBP, and GuSCN. The DSSCs have been characterized via J–V characteristics, IMVS, and IMPS measurements. On illumination at AM 1.5, the cell with 3 wt.% Au NP in the photoanode exhibits an η of 8.56% with J_sc of 19.82 mA cm⁻², V_oc of 0.72 V and FF of 60%. The same cell also exhibited the lowest τ_tr of 7.32 ms and longest τ_rec of 115.33 ms.

Keywords:

• Charge recombination effect
• DSSC
• gold nanoparticles
• guanidinium thiocyanate (GuSCN)
• photoanodes
• tetra propyl ammonium iodide (TPAI)
• titanium dioxide (TiO₂)

Additional information

Funding

The financial support from UM Grant FRG No. FG029-17AFR is greatly acknowledged.