Surface plasmon resonance of sparsely dispersed au nanoparticles in TiO2 photoanode of dye sensitised solar cells

Abstract

Plasmonics is an emerging field that makes use of the nanoscale properties of metals, and its application in solar cells has seen a recent surge of interest [1]. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) were fabricated by incorporating Au NPs into the TiO2 photoanode. The dye absorption is enhanced by the strong localized electric field from localized surface plasmon and the recombination and back reaction of electrons in DSSC is suppressed by depositing a thin TiO2 blocking layer over the TiO2:Au electrode. An increase in photoresponse was observed in the visible region with TiO2:Au electrode. In particular, we report the observation that a nanoparticles of a noble metal (Au) placed on top of the n-type widegap TiO2 that control the light emission angle can increase the short circuit current density and the quantum efficiency of the cell.