Improving Light Harvesting in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Using Hybrid Bimetallic Nanostructures [electronic resource].

Published:: Washington, D.C. : United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Science, 2016.
Oak Ridge, Tenn. : Distributed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Physical Description:: pages 385-394 : digital, PDF file
Additional Creators:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, United States. Department of Energy. Office of Science, National Science Foundation (U.S.), and United States. Department of Energy. Office of Scientific and Technical Information

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Summary:

In this paper, we demonstrate improved light trapping in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) with hybrid bimetallic gold core/silver shell nanostructures. Silica-coated bimetallic nanostructures (Au/Ag/SiO₂ NSs) integrated in the active layer of DSSCs resulted in 7.51% power conversion efficiency relative to 5.97% for reference DSSCs, giving rise to 26% enhancement in device performance. DSSC efficiencies were governed by the particle density of Au/Ag/SiO₂ NSs with best performing devices utilizing only 0.44 wt % of nanostructures. We performed transient absorption spectroscopy of DSSCs with variable concentrations of Au/Ag/SiO₂ NSs and observed an increase in amplitude and decrease in lifetime with increasing particle density relative to reference. Finally, we attributed this trend to plasmon resonant energy transfer and population of the singlet excited states of the sensitizer molecules at the optimum concentration of NSs promoting enhanced exciton generation and rapid charge transfer into TiO₂.

Report Numbers:

E 1.99:1261274

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Published through SciTech Connect.
01/25/2016.
"KC0403040"
"ERKCZ01"
ACS Photonics 3 3 ISSN 2330-4022 AM
Holly F. Zarick; William R. Erwin; Abdelaziz Boulesbaa; Olivia K. Hurd; Joseph A. Webb; Alexander A. Puretzky; David B. Geohegan; Rizia Bardhan.
Dept. of Education (United States)

Funding Information:

AC05-00OR22725
NSF EPS1004083
EEC 1342185
1445197
P0200A090323

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