Effect of Silver Nanoparticle Size on Efficiency Enhancement of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

Titanium dioxide/silver (TiO2/Ag) composite films were prepared by incorporating Ag in pores of mesoporous TiO2films using a photoreduction method. The Ag nanoparticle sizes were in a range of 4.36–38.56 nm. The TiO2/Ag composite films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The TiO2and TiO2/Ag composite films were then sensitized by immersing in a 0.3 mM N719 dye solution and fabricated for conventional dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs).J-Vcharacteristics of the TiO2/Ag DSCs showed that the Ag nanoparticle size of 19.16 nm resulted in the short circuit current density and efficiency of 8.12 mA/cm2and 4.76%.

Plasmonic effect of silver nanoparticles intercalated into mesoporous betalain-sensitized-TiO2 film electrodes on photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitized solar cells

“…The open-circuit voltage (V oc ) and fill factor (FF) remain almost unchanged, while the short-circuit current density (J sc ) indicates a clear increase owed to the light trapping as a result of LSP effect of Ag NPs, which make more photons ready and available for dyes to absorb for photoelectrons generation. The intercalation of Ag nanoparticles has been shown not to significantly affect the values of V oc , because V oc is determined mainly by the redox potential and the Fermi energy of semiconductors and is not significantly affected with the change in size of the Ag NPs [18,47,48].…”

“…Noble plasmonic metal nanostructures, such as gold (Au), silver (Ag) [18,19], aluminum (Al) [20], their alloys [16], and their core-shell formation [21][22][23][24][25], have been incorporated into DSSCs to effectively utilize the incident photon and improve cell performance. Many methods, both chemical and physical categories, including, wet chemical [26], polyol process [27], seed-mediated growth [28], photochemical [29], sonochemical [30], electrochemical [31], bioinspired [32], sputtering [33], and laser ablation [34], which have been, hitherto, reportedly employed to synthesize various plasmonic Ag nanostructures, possess one disadvantage or the other, such as toxic reducing agents, impurities, organic solvents, or may require special condition like high-temperature or low-pressure environment, and sometimes expensive and time-consuming procedures may be involved [35].…”

Plasmonic Effects of Infiltrated Silver Nanoparticles Inside TiO2 Film: Enhanced Photovoltaic Performance in DSSCs

“…The metal nanoparticles with size around 20 nm have been utilized for improving the cell performance. 18 One of the disadvantages of LSPR mechanism is that the metal nanoparticles have a direct contact with I 3 À / I À electrolyte and recombination of electrons can take place when these nanoparticles are used. 19 Moreover, metal nanoparticles are corroded by the electrolyte solution.…”

Self‐cleaning Bombyx mori silk: room‐temperature preparation of anatase nano‐TiO2 by the sol–gel method and its application

“…As a type of clean and renewable energy, solar energy has aroused special interest in recent years . Some photocatalysts, usually semiconductors, can convert solar energy into chemical energy, and can decompose some organic contaminants into non‐toxic or low‐toxic materials under solar irradiation.…”