Improving interfacial electron transfer and light harvesting in dye-sensitized solar cells by using Ag nanowire/TiO2 nanoparticle composite filmsElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Characteristics of AgNWs, I−/I3− erosion test of AgNWs and AgNWs@TiO2, and photoanode thin film quality. See DOI: 10.1039/c5ra12192b

• Main Authors: Huang, Po-Chun, Chen, Tsan-Yao, Wang, Yi-Lin, Wu, Chiun-Yi, Lin, Tsang-Lang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 17.08.2015
• ISSN: 2046-2069
• DOI: 10.1039/c5ra12192b

Metallic Ag nanowires coated with a TiO 2 nanolayer (AgNWs@TiO 2 ) were employed as electron conductors in the mesoporous photoanodes (developed by TiO 2 nanoparticles, P25) of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Our results demonstrate that the AgNWs@TiO 2 (in an optimized content of 3 wt% in the photoanode) improved the energy conversion efficiency ( η ) of the DSSC from 4.68 to 5.31% compared to the DSSC without AgNWs@TiO 2 (pure P25). Such an improvement could be mainly attributed to the reduced TiO 2 /dye/electrolyte interfacial charge transfer impedance. To our surprise, the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and light scattering effects of the nanowires were found to substantially boost the incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency (IPCE) of such DSSCs. Regardless of the assembly techniques, our results demonstrate the possibilities of developing the photoanode with reduced interfacial impedance and superior light harvesting capability compared to the existing photoanodes in similar configurations by appropriately adjusting the AgNWs@TiO 2 content in the photoanode with P25 based composites. TiO 2 coated Ag nanowires improved the interfacial electron transfer, the surface plasmon resonance, and the light-scattering in dye-sensitized solar cells.