Towards the plasmonic effect of Zn nanoparticles on TiO2 monolayer photoanode for dye sensitized solar cell applications

In this study, TiO2 photoanode has been modified by incorporating Zinc (Zn) nanoparticles to improve the incident photon conversion efficiency (IPCE) of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The effect of concentration variation of Zn nanoparticles in conventional photoanode has also been studied. Colloidal suspension method and screen printing techniques were used fabricate TiO2-Zn nanocomposite photoanode. It was observed that the IPCE for TiO2-Zn nanocomposites have been increased with the presence of Zn. Maximum efficiency of 1.34% has been observed for TiO2-5wt% Zn specimens with increased short circuit current (Jsc) and open circuit voltage (Voc) compared to 0.66% efficiency of reference TiO2 photoanode which is due to surface Plasmon and quantum capacitance effect. (C) 2017 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.