Gold-silver@TiO2 nanocomposite-modified plasmonic photoanodes for higher efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells

Lim SP 1 , Lim YS 2 , Pandikumar A 2 , Lim HN 3 , Ng YH 4 , Ramaraj R 5 Show all authors , Bien DC 6 , Abou-Zied OK 7 , Huang NM 2

Affiliations 

  • 1 School of Engineering, Xiamen University Malaysia, Jalan Sunsuria, Bandar Sunsuria, 43900 Sepang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. supei529@gmail.com and Low Dimensional Materials Research Centre, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. huangnayming@um.edu.my
  • 2 Low Dimensional Materials Research Centre, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. huangnayming@um.edu.my
  • 3 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. janet_limhn@science.upm.edu.my and Functional Device Laboratory, Institute of Advanced Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 4 Particles and Catalysis Research Group, School of Chemical Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia
  • 5 Low Dimensional Materials Research Centre, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. huangnayming@um.edu.my and Department of Physical Chemistry, Centre for Photoelectrochemistry, School of Chemistry, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai-625 021, India
  • 6 Nanoelectronics Cluster, MIMOS Berhad, Technology Park Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia
  • 7 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Sultan Qaboos University, P. O. Box 36, Postal Code 123, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. abouzied@squ.edu.om
Phys Chem Chem Phys, 2017 Jan 04;19(2):1395-1407.
PMID: 27976767 DOI: 10.1039/c6cp05950c

Abstract

In the present investigation, gold-silver@titania (Au-Ag@TiO2) plasmonic nanocomposite materials with different Au and Ag compositions were prepared using a simple one-step chemical reduction method and used as photoanodes in high-efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The Au-Ag incorporated TiO2 photoanode demonstrated an enhanced solar-to-electrical energy conversion efficiency of 7.33%, which is ∼230% higher than the unmodified TiO2 photoanode (2.22%) under full sunlight illumination (100 mW cm-2, AM 1.5G). This superior solar energy conversion efficiency was mainly due to the synergistic effect between the Au and Ag, and their surface plasmon resonance effect, which improved the optical absorption and interfacial charge transfer by minimizing the charge recombination process. The influence of the Au-Ag composition on the overall energy conversion efficiency was also explored, and the optimized composition with TiO2 was found to be Au75-Ag25. This was reflected in the femtosecond transient absorption dynamics in which the electron-phonon interaction in the Au nanoparticles was measured to be 6.14 ps in TiO2/Au75:Ag25, compared to 2.38 ps for free Au and 4.02 ps for TiO2/Au100:Ag0. The slower dynamics indicates a more efficient electron-hole separation in TiO2/Au75:Ag25 that is attributed to the formation of a Schottky barrier at the interface between TiO2 and the noble metal(s) that acts as an electron sink. The significant boost in the solar energy conversion efficiency with the Au-Ag@TiO2 plasmonic nanocomposite showed its potential as a photoanode for high-efficiency DSSCs.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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