title: Plasmonic dye-sensitized solar cells incorporated with Au-TiO₂ nanostructures with tailored configurations.
abstract: We developed plasmonic dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) with tailor-designed Au-TiO₂ nanostructures integrated into the photoanode. Mutually antagonistic Au-TiO₂ core-shell structures supported on SiO₂ spheres (SiO₂@TiO₂@AuNP and SiO₂@AuNP@TiO₂) were prepared and incorporated as additives into the photoanodes of the DSSCs. The DSSCs employing the nanocrystalline-TiO₂ (nc-TiO₂)/SiO₂@TiO₂@AuNP and nc-TiO₂/SiO₂@AuNP@TiO2₂ as photoanodes showed remarkably enhanced power conversion efficiencies up to about 14% and 10%, respectively, with respect to a reference cell containing an nc-TiO₂/SiO₂@TiO₂ photoanode. This can be mainly attributed to the enhanced dye absorption by the intensified near-field effect of AuNPs and plasmon-enhanced photocurrent generation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Global Top 5 Research Program, Ewha Womans University, 52, Ewhayeodae-gil, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, 120-750, South Korea. dhkim@ewha.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Yoon Hee
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.forename: Yu Jin
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.forename: Saji Thomas
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Kochuveedu
authors.forename: Myunghwan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Byun
authors.forename: Zhiqun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Dong Ha
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Kim