title: Synthesis of Au-SiO2 asymmetric clusters and their application in ZnO nanosheet-based dye-sensitized solar cells.
abstract: A facile and novel process modified from the Stöber method has been developed to prepare Au-SiO2 asymmetric clusters with a number of Au nanoparticles off-center. The Au-SiO2 asymmetric clusters exhibit the wanted surface plasmons along with increases in the plasmonic near field and optical extinction efficiency. They are incorporated into dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) consisting of ZnO nanosheets as the photoanode, where the surface plasmonic effect on DSSCs performance arising from the Au-SiO2 asymmetric clusters is investigated. An enhancement in both the photocurrent and overall energy conversion efficiency is observed, arising from the improvement in light harvesting.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117576. g0800325@nus.edu.sg
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Kaidi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang