title: Significant Broadband Photocurrent Enhancement by Au-CZTS Core-Shell Nanostructured Photocathodes.
abstract: Copper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS) is a promising material for harvesting solar energy due to its abundance and non-toxicity. However, its poor performance hinders their wide application. In this paper gold (Au) nanoparticles are successfully incorporated into CZTS to form Au@CZTS core-shell nanostructures. The photocathode of Au@CZTS nanostructures exhibits enhanced optical absorption characteristics and improved incident photon-to-current efficiency (IPCE) performance. It is demonstrated that using this photocathode there is a significant increase of the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of a photoelectrochemical solar cell of 100% compared to using a CZTS without Au core. More importantly, the PCE of Au@CZTS photocathode improved by 15.8% compared to standard platinum (Pt) counter electrode. The increased efficiency is attributed to plasmon resonance energy transfer (PRET) between the Au nanoparticle core and the CZTS shell at wavelengths shorter than the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peak of the Au and the semiconductor bandgap.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom, SW7 2AZ.
authors.forename: Xuemei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom, SW7 2AZ.
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, University of Technology Malaysia International Campus, 54100, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Centeno
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom, SW7 2AZ.
authors.forename: Mary P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Ryan
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom, SW7 2AZ.
authors.forename: Neil M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Alford
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom, SW7 2AZ.
authors.forename: D Jason
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Riley
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom, SW7 2AZ.
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xie