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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mater.
Sec. Semiconducting Materials and Devices
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmats.2024.1457325
This article is part of the Research Topic Excitonic Properties of Wide-Bandgap Oxide Semiconductors View all articles

Submicron-Scale Au-Decorated TiO2 Mesoporous Spheres for Enhanced Photon Harvesting in DSSCs through Near-Field Enhancement, Light Scattering, and Dye Loading

Provisionally accepted
Dhavalkumar N. Joshi Dhavalkumar N. Joshi 1Anil Pal Anil Pal 2Krishnpriya R Krishnpriya R 3ARUN PRASATH RAMASWAMY ARUN PRASATH RAMASWAMY 1*
  • 1 Pondicherry University, Pondicherry, Puducherry, India
  • 2 Universitätsbibliothek, Technische Universität München, Munich, Bavaria, Germany
  • 3 Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Light harvesting materials are crucial for capturing the sunlight in a device such as a solar cell for better efficiency. In this study, we developed high surface area, submicron-sized TiO2 spheres (MTS) incorporated with anisotropic Au nanoparticles (Au_MTS) to create highly light-absorbing photoanodes for enhanced dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) efficiency. The high surface area of MTS (~125 m²/g) allows for increased dye-loading, while their submicron size (150-300 nm) provides superior light-scattering capabilities for significantly enhancing the photoanode's light absorption. Furthermore, incorporating of anisotropic Au nanoparticles enables broadband surface plasmon resonance (SPR) coupling, synergistically boosting photon harvesting in the Au_MTS photoanodes. The interconnected tiny TiO2 nanoparticle network in MTS supports charge carrier generation and transport, providing ample sites for dye adsorption and efficient electron pathways. Au_MTS with varying amounts of Au nanoparticles synthesized by a greener microwave-assisted synthesis method and DSSC devices were fabricated and compared with devices made from pristine MTS and P25 nanoparticles. The optimal Au_MTS device, containing ~1.3 wt.% Au nanoparticles, achieved a maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of ~7.7%, representing improvements of ~40% and ~60% over pristine MTS (PCE of ~5.2%) and P25 nanoparticles (PCE of ~4.71%), respectively. Overall, this work demonstrates the effectiveness of plasmonic mesoporous photoanodes in enhancing DSSC performance through improved photo response, light scattering, and dye loading.

    Keywords: mesoporous, Surface Plasmon Resonance, dye-sensitized solar cell, Light-scattering, Electron Transport

    Received: 30 Jun 2024; Accepted: 24 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Joshi, Pal, R and RAMASWAMY. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: ARUN PRASATH RAMASWAMY, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry, 605014, Puducherry, India

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.