Electrophoretic deposition of plasmonic nanocomposite for the fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cells

摘要

TiOsub2/sub-Ag nanocomposites have been prepared by hydrothermal process for the preparation of photoelectrode for dye-sensitized solar cells. The formation of TiOsub2/sub-Ag nanocomposites have been confirmed by the transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-Vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and energy dispersive X-ray analysis. The TEM images confirm that silver nanoparticles of average size 30 nm are dispersed inside the TiOsub2/sub matrix. Electrophoretic deposition technique (EPD) is successfully utilized to incorporate TiOsub2/sub-Ag nanocomposites in commercially available TiOsub2/sub nanoparticle to prepare photoelectrode on transparent oxide substrate. Incorporation of TiOsub2/sub-Ag nanocomposites by EPD technique has been done in different ways: in all the layers of TiOsub2 /subphotoelectrode and in only the top layer of TiOsub2 /sub photoelectrode. X-ray diffraction, field effect scanning electron microscopy in back scattered mode and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy study confirm the presence of TiOsub2/sub-Ag nanostructure in prepared photoelectrode. The current-voltage characteristic shows 78% and 67% enhancement of photocurrent and power conversion efficiency (PCE) respectively in the DSSC with Ag incorporated photoelectrode compared to the cell without Ag nanoparticles and maximum PCE obtained in DSSC with TiOsub2/sub-Ag is 7.5%.