Issue 43, 2013

Enhanced performance of dye-sensitized solar cells by doping Au nanoparticles into photoanodes: a size effect study

Abstract

Remarkably increased power conversion efficiency (PCE) of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) is achieved by addition of small quantities of Au nanoparticles (NPs) into TiO2 photoanodes. By doping photoanodes with different sizes of Au NPs, the PCE of cells is improved from 9.59% to 10.80% (∼13% enhancement). The maximum increases in open-circuit voltage by 6.69% and short-circuit current density by 7.71% are observed. Detailed characterization of photovoltaic characteristics, electron lifetime and recombination resistance indicates the co-contribution of the photocharging effect, plasmonic effect and scattering effect of Au NPs and their dependence on Au NP sizes. The success of this work provides a simple and generally applicable approach to enhance light harvesting and charge separation for DSSCs.

Graphical abstract: Enhanced performance of dye-sensitized solar cells by doping Au nanoparticles into photoanodes: a size effect study

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
12 Jul 2013
Accepted
06 Sep 2013
First published
09 Sep 2013

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2013,1, 13524-13531

Enhanced performance of dye-sensitized solar cells by doping Au nanoparticles into photoanodes: a size effect study

Q. Wang, T. Butburee, X. Wu, H. Chen, G. Liu and L. Wang, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2013, 1, 13524 DOI: 10.1039/C3TA12692G

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements