title: Enhancing the Performance of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells with a Gold-Nanoflowers Box.
abstract: To improve the electron collection, electron lifetime, and light-harvesting efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells simultaneously, Au nanoflowers were prepared and used to cover the entire TiO2film. Deposition of Au nanoflowers around the TiO2film formed a light-scattering "box" that covered the entire TiO2film. Compared with a light-scattering layer that only covers the top surface of TiO2, the Au-nanoflowers box exhibited better light-harvesting efficiency due to omnidirectional light scattering, faster electron transport (attributed to the formation of electron channels between the metallic Au nanoflowers and the electron-collection electrode), and slower charge recombination. As a consequence, the short-circuit photocurrent and open-circuit photovoltage were both enhanced significantly, which improved the power conversion efficiency from 8.12 to 10.91 % (34 %) when an Au-nanoflowers box was wrapped around the photoanode.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Lab of Advanced materials, iChEM (Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials), Fudan University, 2205 Songhu Road, Shanghai, 200438, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Lab of Advanced materials, iChEM (Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials), Fudan University, 2205 Songhu Road, Shanghai, 200438, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Zhong-Sheng
authors.initials: ZS
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: charge recombination; dye-sensitized solar cells; electron transport; light scattering; nanostructures