Synergy light-trapping-enhanced solar energy conversion in DSSCs containing texture pit and silver nanoparticles

We report on an easy synthetic method, spin coating, for Surface-enhanced Raman scattering-active texture pit array dimensions with embedded silver nanoparticles, where the gap among pits can be engineered on the micro scale. The engineered nucleation sites for the texturing process can actively control the morphological properties of the photo-anode of DSSCs and effectively improve the stability of cells. By applying those distinguished photo-anodes to dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), a power conversion efficiency of 7.32% is obtained. The improvement of the short-circuit current density is due to enhanced optical absorption and the presence of limited electron recombination processes. These results demonstrate that engineered nucleation sites for the texturing process can actively control the morphological properties of the photo-anode of DSSCs. It incites a new approach for adjusting the morphology and structure of the photoanode of solar cells, and opens up a new way to obtain arrayed nanostructures, which can provide a significant synthesis of optically active membrane for DSSCs.