Plasmonic Enhancement of Dye Sensitized Solar Cells in the Red-to-near-Infrared Region using Triangular Core–Shell Ag@SiO₂ Nanoparticles

Abstract

Recently, plasmonic metal nanoparticles have been shown to be very effective in increasing the light harvesting efficiency (LHE) of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Most commonly, spherical nanoparticles composed of silver or gold are used for this application; however, the localized surface plasmon resonances of these isotropic particles have maxima in the 400-550 nm range, limiting any plasmonic enhancements to wavelengths below 600 nm. Herein, we demonstrate that the incorporation of anisotropic, triangular silver nanoprisms in the photoanode of DSSCs can dramatically increase the LHE in the red and near-infrared regions. Core-shell Ag@SiO2 nanoprisms were synthesized and incorporated in various quantities into the titania pastes used to prepare the photoanodes. This optimization led to an overall 32 ± 17% increase in the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of cells made using 0.05% (w/w) of the Ag@SiO2 composite. Measurements of the incident photon-to-current efficiency provided further evidence that this increase is a result of improved light harvesting in the red and near-infrared regions. The effect of shell thickness on nanoparticle stability was also investigated, and it was found that thick (30 nm) silica shells provide the best protection against corrosion by the triiodide-containing electrolyte, while still enabling large improvements in PCE to be realized.

Improving the rates of Pd-catalyzed reactions by exciting the surface plasmons of AuPd bimetallic nanotriangles

“…UV-vis spectra were measured using a Varian Cary 50 Bio UV-vis spectrophotometer with an optical path length of 1 cm. 1 H NMR spectra were collected by using a Bruker Avance 500 MHz spectrometer.…”

“…At each hour, 200 mL aliquots of the reaction mixture were collected, the reaction was quenched with 200 mL of concentrated H 2 SO 4 , and the products extracted with dichloromethane. The solvent was evaporated in a stream of air, and the leover solids were dissolved in CDCl 3 and characterized by 1 H NMR. The rest of the cross-coupling reactions were performed in a similar way except for the number of moles of K 2 CO 3 in the reaction mixture.…”

“…Plasmonic nanoparticles have been extensively studied as light harvesting materials in various applications such as photovoltaics, [1][2][3][4] biotechnology, 5 catalysis, 6 and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. 7 In particular, employing their light trapping properties to drive chemical transformations is an emerging eld.…”

Recent advancements in plasmon-enhanced promising third-generation solar cells

“…Application of metal@SiO 2 triangular nanoprisms was also explored in DSCs [101,102]. Incorporation of 0.05 wt% Ag@SiO 2 triangular nanoprisms into photoanodes improved PCE by 32% due to the improvement in light harvesting in the 550-750 nm spectral region, while only a 15% enhancement was observed when Au@SiO 2 triangular nanoprisms were used.…”

Application of surface chemistry at the interface of mesoporous TiO2 films for stable and high efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells.

“…227 DSSCs with plasmonic nanostructures usually show improvements in photocurrent and overall efficiency, but not usually Voc and FF. There is therefore still room for improvement in the use of plasmonic nanostructures for solar cell applications.…”