Enhancing the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cell by increasing the light trapping and decreasing the electron-hole recombination rate due to Ag@TiO2 core-shell photoanode structure

Abstract

Abstract In this research, efficiency enhancement of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) with Ag doped TiO2 core-shell (C–S) as plasmonic photoanode structure, abbreviated as Ag@TiO2, was investigated using Sol-Gel- Dr Blade method. Different amount of Ag in two different thick of photoanode were applied to enhance the light absorption for high-performance DSSCs. The localized surface plasmonic resonance (LSPR) effect of Ag@TiO2 showed an improvement in light trapping and power conversion efficiency (PCE) of developed DSSCs. Conforming to the conclusions under AM 1.5 spectrum, the prepared plasmonic solar cells exhibited 21.9% and 41.46% increase in PCE for 13 μm and 8.4 μm thick of photoanode, respectively.