Photovoltaic characteristics of titania photoanodes modified with silver nanoparticles by pulsed laser deposition

Plasmonic metals such as gold, silver and copper are optically attractive photosensitizers owing to its unique optical properties at nano-scaled level, where the unique surface plasmon resonance (SPR) phenomenon becomes operative. These photosensitizers are usually deposited by immersion techniques which impart poor control on density of these photosensitizers dispersed on semiconductors. Herein, we report the deposition of silver NPs on TiO2 semiconductor by employing pulsed laser deposition (PLO). PLO efficiently deposits Ag NPs on TiO2 with effective control on NPs distribution on photoanodes which, ultimately, tune the photovoltaic (PV) characteristics of the resultant NPs sensitized solar cells, since the formed NPs sizes and morphology, and their spatial distribution on semiconductor have a significant influence on the PEC performance. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.