Plasmonic Dye Sensitized Solar Cells Incorporated with TiO2-Ag Nanostructures

We demonstrated an improvement in efficiency of Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) decorated with silver (Ag) nanoparticles (NPs) through successive ion layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR). The DSSCs employing FTO/TiO2/AgNPs and FTO/AgNPs/TiO2 as photoanodes show remarkably enhanced power conversion efficiencies up to about 36% and 25%, respectively, with an enhanced photocurrent densities of about 49% and 22% with respect to a reference cell containing FTO/TiO2 photoanode. These enhancements can be mainly attributed to the enhanced dye absorption by the intensified near-field effect of AgNPs and plasmon-enhanced photocurrent generation. The related PV performance enhancement mechanism and surface-plasmon resonance (SPR) in DSSCs with Ag nanostructures are discussed.