Silver Nanoparticles as Nano Antenna for TiO2 Activation and its Application in DSSC for Enhanced Performance

Abstract

The plasmonic effects of silver nanoparticles with poly (4-vinylpyridine) as passivation nanostructure for simultaneous photon energy and electron management were investigated. SEM, UV-vis-NIR, were utilized to describe the optical and morphological properties of the prepared samples. As shown from the SEM results, the introduction of Ag@P4VP, enhances nucleation, prompting an increase in the rate of growth compared to the control. The UV-vis result demonstrates a redshift to higher wavelength, showing an increase in visible light absorption which is attributed to the intensified near field effect of the surface plasmon that emerges between TiO₂ and Ag@P₄VP. The functionalized samples were effectively introduced into DSSCs. The photovoltaic performances were evaluated under 100 mWcm-2 light intensity. The performance, particularly the photocurrent, and open circuit voltage of the DSSC containing Ag@P4VP NPs was remarkably enhanced by the AgNPs. The modified Ag@P4VP NPs photoanode demonstrates a short circuit current density (JSC) of 2.54 mAcm^-2, a photovoltage (VOC) of 0.72 V yielding an efficiency of 1.09 %. This represents a 60.3 % enhancement in efficiency over the efficiency (0.68 %) of bare FTO without Ag@P4VP NPs.