Plasmonic silver sandwich structured photoanode and reflective counter electrode enhancing power conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cell

摘要

This work describes the efficient improvement of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) utilizing a photoanode with a plasmonic sandwiched silicon dioxide/silver/titanium dioxide (SiO2/Ag/TiO2) structure and a counter electrode (CE) of polypyrrole/reduced graphene oxide/indium tin oxide (Ppy/rGO/ITO) assembled with an aluminium (Al) foil as a reflective layer. The localized surface plasmonic resonance induced from Ag increases the absorption of the dye molecules, and hence significantly improves the electron collection and light-harvesting efficiencies. Compared with conventional photoanode of DCCSs composed of TiO2 paste, the photovoltaic cells containing the plasmonic sandwiched structure exhibits a remarkable improvement in the power conversion efficiency (n), with up to a 2-fold enhancement (from 0.6% to 1.2%), along with a 68.37% increment in the short-circuit current density (Jsc), from 2.15 to 3.62 mA cm(-2). The reflective layer of Al foil contributes to a significant enhancement of n of 1.7-fold for the DSSC.