Towards better light harvesting capability for DSSC (dye sensitized solar cells) through addition of Au@SiO_2 core-shell nanoparticles

摘要

The Au nanoparticles as core can increase the light harvesting due to the strong near-field effect LSPR (Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance), effectively minimized the electron recombination process and also can improve the optical absorption of the dye sensitized. Au@SiO_2 core-shell nanoparticles were prepared using SiO_2 extracted from Sidoarjo mud volcano. In this work investigated the influence of pH solution and silica shell volume fraction in Au@SiO_2 nanoparticles core-shell structure on DSSC loaded with Ru-based dye. From XRD characterization it was found that core-shell contains SiO_2, Au, γAl_2O_3 and traces NaCl. UV-Vis absorption spectra of core-shell showed the position of the surface plasmon AuNP band in the range of 500-600 nm. The Au@SiO_2 core-shell with volume fraction of 30ml silica has the highest peak absorbance. The enhanced light absorption is primarily attributed to the LSPR effect of the Au core. Our results on incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency indicates that the presence of SiO_2 depending on its volume fraction tends to shift to longer wavelength.