Gold nanoparticles of $100 nm in diameter were incorporated into TiO 2 nanoparticles for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). At the optimum Au/TiO 2 mass ratio of 0.05, the power-conversion efficiency of the DSSC improved to 3.3% from a value of 2.7% without Au, and this improvement was mainly attributed to the photocurrent density. The Au nanoparticles embedded in the nanoparticulate-TiO 2 film strongly absorbed light due to the localized surface-plasmon resonance, and thereby promoted light absorption of the dye. In the DSSCs, the 100 nm-diameter Au nanoparticles generate field enhancement by surface-plasmon resonance rather than prolonged optical paths by light scattering. V
To suppress the electron-hole recombination in the multishell sensitizer for quantum-dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSCs), the PbxCd1−xS interlayer is incorporated between the PbS core and CdS shell. The PbS/PbxCd1−xS/CdS structure enhances the cell efficiency by ∼60% compared to PbS/CdS QDSCs, and consequently shows a power-conversion efficiency of 1.37% with ZnS coating. Open-circuit voltage decay confirmed that the PbxCd1−xS interlayer effectively reduces the recombination at the PbS/CdS interface. Furthermore, with respect to the peak shift of incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency, the interlayer also increases the light-harvesting efficiency in the higher-wavelength region by reducing the exciton confinement within the PbS sensitizer.
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