Plasmon-enhanced Performance of Dye-sensitized Solar Cells Based on Electrodeposited Ag Nanoparticles

作     者：Xinning Luan Ying Wang 

作者机构：Department of Mechanical & Industrial EngineeringLouisiana State University 

出 版 物：《Journal of Materials Science & Technology》 (材料科学技术（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2014年第30卷第1期

页      面：1-7页

核心收录：

学科分类：08[工学] 080502[工学-材料学] 0805[工学-材料科学与工程（可授工学、理学学位）] 

基　　金：supported by LABOR-RCS grant BP-Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative(GRI)grant 

主　　题：TiO2 nanotube Dye-sensitized solar cell Pulse current deposition Ag nanoparticle TiCI4 treatment 

摘      要：In the present work, pulse current deposition is used to deposit evenly distributed and uniformly sized Ag nanoparticles onto a TiO2 nanotube array as photoelectrode in dye-sensitized solar cells （DSSCs）, and the size and amount of loading Ag nanoparticles are controlled by the pulse deposition time. Due to the enhanced light absorption and electron-hole separation caused by plasmon effect, DSSCs based on Ag-modified TiO2 nanotube arrays show higher energy conversion efficiencies than those based on bare nanotubes with the same tube length. Particularly, DSSC based on nanotubes modified using pulse deposition time 1 s/3 s delivers the highest energy conversion efficiency of 1.68% and the largest short-circuit current of 4.37 mA/ cm2, while DSSC consisting of bare nanotubes exhibits efficiency of 1.20% and short-circuit current of 2.27 mA/cm2, which represents a 40% enhancement of cell efficiency in DSSC based on Ag-modified Ti02 nanotubes. It is also noted that overly long pulse deposition time will not further increase DSSC efficiency due to agglomeration of Ag particles. For example, when the pulse deposition time is increased to 2 s/6 s, DSSC based on Ag-modified nanotubes exhibits a lower efficiency of 1.42%. Moreover, high-concentration TiCI4 treatment on TiO2 nanotube arrays can further increase the energy conversion efficiencies to 3.82% and 2.61% for DSSC based on Ag-modified TiO2 nanotubes and DSSC based on bare TiO2 nanotubes, respectively, by significantly creating more surface area for dye loading.