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Plasmon-enhanced polymer-sensitized solar cells were manufactured by incorporating core−shell Au@ SiO 2 particles into the TiO 2 photoanode. The plasmonenhanced solar cells showed an improved performance due to an increased j sc leading to a higher power conversion efficiency compared to reference devices without Au@SiO 2 particles, and a small increase in the V oc was also observed. The incident photon to current efficiency (IPCE) spectra showed that an enhanced absorption in the plasmon devices was the cause of the improved performance. By electrodynamics modeling of the Au@SiO 2 particles, we conclude that a combination of scattering and near-field enhancement is the cause of the increased efficiency in these plasmon-enhanced solar cells.

Polythiophene derivatives with carboxylic acid groups directly attached to the thiophene rings were synthesized for polymer-sensitized solar cells (PSSCs). The polymer layer densely and uniformly covering the surface of the TiO 2 particle in the photoanode of the PSSCs allows excitons to diffuse to the polymer/TiO 2 interface efficiently. The PSSCs yielded a maximum incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency of about 80% at 480 nm and the open-circuit voltage (V OC ) values but also short-circuit current density (J SC ) values increased with decreasing hydrolysis ratio of the polymer. #

Using charge extraction techniques we have clarified the charge transport properties of novel poly-thiophene derivatives intended for use as sensitizers in polymer sensitized solar cells. The polymers are of low molecular weight in order to enable penetration into a mesoporous titanium dioxide film. Hydrophilic anchoring units are attached to the thiophene ring to facilitate attachment of the polymer to the titanium dioxide. The hole transporting properties were determined in order to clarify the possibility of using the polymers both as sensitizers and hole transporting material in a hybrid type device. We found that the mobilities are in the range of 1-4•10-8 cm 2 /Vs. The low mobility is compensated by very long charge carrier lifetimes in the order of 100 ms resulting in a very promising charge carrier drift distance of 1 µm.