Boosting Photovoltaic Performance of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Using Silver Nanoparticle-Decorated N,S-Co-Doped-TiO2 Photoanode

Su Pei Lim; Alagarsamy Pandikumar; Hong Ngee Lim; Ramasamy Ramaraj; Nay Ming Huang

doi:10.1038/srep11922

Boosting Photovoltaic Performance of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Using Silver Nanoparticle-Decorated N,S-Co-Doped-TiO2 Photoanode

Sci Rep. 2015 Jul 6:5:11922. doi: 10.1038/srep11922.

Authors

Su Pei Lim¹, Alagarsamy Pandikumar¹, Hong Ngee Lim², Ramasamy Ramaraj³, Nay Ming Huang¹

Affiliations

¹ Low Dimensional Materials Research Centre, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
² 1] Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia [2] Functional Device Laboratory, Institute of Advanced Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
³ 1] Low Dimensional Materials Research Centre, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia [2] Department of Physical Chemistry, School of Chemistry, Centre for Photoelectrochemistry Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai-625 021, India.

Abstract

A silver nanoparticle-decorated N,S-co-doped TiO2 nanocomposite was successfully prepared and used as an efficient photoanode in high-performance dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) with N719 dye. The DSSCs assembled with the N,S-TiO2@Ag-modified photoanode demonstrated an enhanced solar-to-electrical energy conversion efficiency of 8.22%, which was better than that of a DSSC photoanode composed of unmodified TiO2 (2.57%) under full sunlight illumination (100 mWcm(-2), AM 1.5 G). This enhanced efficiency was mainly attributed to the reduced band gap energy, improved interfacial charge transfer, and retarded charge recombination process. The influence of the Ag content on the overall efficiency was also investigated, and the optimum Ag content with N,S-TiO2 was found to be 20 wt%. Because of the enhanced solar energy conversion efficiency of the N,S-TiO2@Ag nanocomposite, it should be considered as a potential photoanode for high-performance DSSCs.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't