Nyembe S, Chindeka F, Ndlovu G, Mkhohlakali A, Nyokong T, Sikhwivhilu L. Enhanced Solar Efficiency via Incorporation of Plasmonic Gold Nanostructures in a Titanium Oxide/Eosin Y Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell.
Nanomaterials (Basel) 2022;
12:1715. [PMID:
35630936 PMCID:
PMC9145802 DOI:
10.3390/nano12101715]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2022] [Revised: 04/22/2022] [Accepted: 05/13/2022] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
Plasmonic gold nanoparticles significantly improved the efficiency of a TiO2 and Eosin Y based dye-sensitized solar cell from 2.4 to 6.43%. The gold nanoparticles' sizes that were tested were 14 nm, 30 nm and 40 nm synthesized via the systematic reduction of citrate concentration using the Turkevich method. Prestine TiO2 without plasmonic gold nanoparticles yielded an efficiency of 2.4%. However, the loading of 40 nm gold nanoparticles into the TiO2 matrix yielded the highest DSSC efficiency of 6.43% compared to 30 nm (5.91%) and 14 nm (2.6%). The relatively high efficiency demonstrated by plasmonic gold nanoparticles is ascribed to light absorption/scattering, hot electron injection and plasmon-induced resonance energy transfer (PIRET), influenced by the size of the gold nanoparticles.
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