Plasmonic gold nanoparticles coated TiO₂ photoanode for efficiency enhancement in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs)

In this work, gold nanoparticles (NPs) of 100 nm in size were added to the active layer of DSSC. The electrolyte is a gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) containing PEO, PhCh, TPAI, BMII, I-2, DMF, EC, TBP, and GuSCN. The DSSCs have been characterized via J-V characteristics, IMVS, and IMPS measurements. On illumination at AM 1.5, the cell with 3 wt.% Au NP in the photoanode exhibits an eta of 8.56% with J(sc) of 19.82 mA cm(-2), V-oc of 0.72 V and FF of 60%. The same cell also exhibited the lowest tau(tr) of 7.32 ms and longest tau(rec) of 115.33 ms.