Enhancement in Photovoltaic Parameters of a Dye Sensitized Solar Cell by Surface Plasmon Resonance of Metallic Silver Nanoparticles

The influence of silver nanoparticles in dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) through successive ion layer adsorption and reaction was demonstrated. The results show that addition of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) to titanium dioxide (TiO2) photo anode significantly improved the performance of the DSSC. The modified silver photo anode presents an enhanced photovoltaic response compared to the reference electrode. The DSSC containing AgNPs, gave a short-circuit current density (JSC) of 0.138 mAcm-2, open-circuit voltage (VOC) of 0.470 V and fill factor (FF) of 0.504, yielding an efficiency (η) of 0.065%. The cell exhibits (i) 63% improvement in efficiency over the efficiency (0.040%) (ii) 48.4% enhancement in short circuit current density over the Jsc (0.093 mAcm-2) and (iii) 8.5% improvement in open circuit voltage over the VOC (0.433 V) of bare fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO)-based device lacking AgNPs. The increase of Jsc is attributed to the enhanced dye light absorption in strength and spectral range due to the surface plasmon resonance of AgNPs in photo anode, while the increase of Voc may be related to the more negative level of the quasi-Fermi energy of Ag-TiO2 composite system resulting from the added AgNPs. The related PV performance enhancement mechanism and surface-plasmon resonances in DSSCs with Ag nanostructures are discussed.