Ag plasmonic nanostructures and a novel gel electrolyte in a high efficiency TiO2/CdS solar cell

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics : PCCP
P Naresh KumarAvanish Kumar Srivastava

Abstract

A novel photoanode architecture with plasmonic silver (Ag) nanostructures embedded in titania (TiO2), which served as the wide band gap semiconducting support and CdS quantum dots (QDs), as light absorbers, is presented. Ag nanostructures were prepared by a polyol method and are comprised of clumps of nanorods, 15-35 nm wide, interspersed with globular nanoparticles and they were characterized by a face centered cubic lattice. Optimization of Ag nanostructures was achieved on the basis of a superior power conversion efficiency (PCE) obtained for the cell with a Ag/TiO2/CdS electrode encompassing a mixed morphology of Ag nano-rods and particles, relative to analogous cells with either Ag nanoparticles or Ag nanorods. Interfacial charge transfer kinetics was unraveled by fluorescence quenching and lifetime studies. Ag nanostructures improve the light harvesting ability of the TiO2/CdS photoanode via (a) plasmonic and scattering effects, which induce both near- and far-field enhancements which translate to higher photocurrent densities and (b) charging effects, whereby, photoexcited electron transfer from TiO2 to Ag is facilitated by Fermi level equilibration. Owing to the spectacular ability of Ag nanostructures to increase light...Continue Reading

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Citations

Nov 5, 2016·ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces·P Naresh KumarMelepurath Deepa
Jan 11, 2017·Chemphyschem : a European Journal of Chemical Physics and Physical Chemistry·Aparajita DasPartha Ghosal
Jul 12, 2017·ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces·P Naresh KumarAvanish K Srivastava

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