Enhanced Solar Efficiency via Incorporation of Plasmonic Gold Nanostructures in a Titanium Oxide/Eosin Y Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell.

Plasmonic gold nanoparticles significantly improved the efficiency of a TiO 2 and Eosin Y based dye-sensitized solar cell from 2.4 to 6.43%. The gold nanoparticles' sizes that were tested were 14 nm, 30 nm and 40 nm synthesized via the systematic reduction of citrate concentration using the Turkevich method. Prestine TiO 2 without plasmonic gold nanoparticles yielded an efficiency of 2.4%. However, the loading of 40 nm gold nanoparticles into the TiO 2 matrix yielded the highest DSSC efficiency of 6.43% compared to 30 nm (5.91%) and 14 nm (2.6%). The relatively high efficiency demonstrated by plasmonic gold nanoparticles is ascribed to light absorption/scattering, hot electron injection and plasmon-induced resonance energy transfer (PIRET), influenced by the size of the gold nanoparticles.