Plasmon-induced efficiency enhancement on dye-sensitized solar cell by a 3D TNW-AuNP layer

A new 3D TNW-AuNP plasmonic electrode consists of antireflective (AR) TiO2 nanowires (TNWs) (∼600 nm thickness) serving as light-harvesting antennae coupling with Au nanoparticles (NPs). A huge red-shift of 55 nm is observed in surface plasmon spectra for the Au (11 nm) plasmonic electrode that has 11 nm size Au NPs, whereby (111) lattice planes have a specific bonding with the TiO2 (101) planes. Remarkable red-shift is mainly attributed to the localized electric field improvement resulting from the plasmonic coupling effect between the Au NPs and the Au-TiO2 hybrids. After TiCl4 treatment, this favorable Au (11 nm) nanostructure takes advantage of harvesting photons to increase the conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) from 6.25% to 9.73%.