Plasmonic tio2 composites for dye-sensitized solar cells applications

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have attracted considerable attention of scientists because of their low cost, flexible design, ease of fabrication and low toxicity, since first reported by Grätzel in 1991. In order to prevent the charge recombination at the TiO2/dye/electrolyte interface, engineering of an alternative functional photoanodes still to be challenged. Recently, cooperation between surface plasmon resonance and photosensitizer electrodes led to achieve different properties of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC). Particularly, plasmonic nanoclusters have ability to concentrate the incident light in their optical field as well as enhancement the efficiency of photovoltaic devices based on strong light scattering and local field improvements. For example, noble metal nano-particles (i.e., Au and Ag) have been utilized for surface modification of TiO2 to improve the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of a DSSC. In this study, plasmonic TiO2 photoanodes were synthesized by multi-stage methods using solvothermal and silanization procedures, respectively. The physical and chemical properties of the plasmonic photoanodes were characterized using SEM, XRD, XPS, BET, UV-vis, and EIS as well. Based on the specific surface area, pore size distribution, and enhanced localized surface plasmon resonance properties of the synthesized photoanodes, the designed DSSCs showed remarkable power conversion efficiency (i.e., 7.62%) compare to the control groups (i.e., bare TiO2 and P25 paste).