Enhancement of Dye-Sensitized solar cells performance by core shell Ag@organic (organic=2-nitroaniline, PVA, 4-choloroaniline and PVP): Effects of shell type on photocurrent

We present an investigation on introducing core-shell Ag@organic (organic = 2-nitroaniline, 4-choloroaniline, PVA, and PVP) core shell nanoparticles (CSNPs) into dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). As novel core-shell nanopartcle structures, Ag@organic present not only the chemical stability to iodide/triiodide redox couple, but also the adhesiveness to dye molecules, which could help to localize most of N719 molecules around plasmonic CSNPs, hence increasing the optical absorption resulting the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the DSSCs. We obtain a PCE enhancement of 90% from 2% for reference device to 3.8% with incorporation of Ag@4-choloraniline CSNPs. Moreover, the device performance with different shell type of Ag@organic CSNPs including Ag@2-nitroaniline, Ag@4-choloraniline, Ag@PVA, and Ag@PVP has been studied, and we draw the conclusion that the performance of dye synthesized solar cells could be well improved through enhancing the light absorption by local surface plasmon (LSP) effect from Ag@4-choloroaniline CSNPs. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.