Preparation and Characterization of Plasmon DSSC Photoanode With High Efficiency Based on Cu/Co$_{\text{3}}$O$_{\text{4}}$/TiO$_{\text{2}}$

In this study, the photoanode of the dye-sensitive solar cell was prepared by using the ternary composite material Cu/Co $_{\text{3}}$ O $_{\text{4}}$ /TiO $_{\text{2}}$ , and the Co $_{\text{3}}$ O $_{\text{4}}$ was prepared by hydrothermal method and deposited on the surface of the TiO $_{\text{2}}$ photoelectrode, and the copper nanoparticles were prepared by reduction method and attached to the surface of Co $_{\text{3}}$ O $_{\text{4}}$ /TiO $_{\text{2}}$ . The morphology of Cu/Co $_{\text{3}}$ O $_{\text{4}}$ /TiO $_{\text{2}}$ was analyzed by SEM and TEM, and the crystal characteristics of Cu/Co $_{\text{3}}$ O $_{\text{4}}$ /TiO $_{\text{2}}$ were characterized through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). UV–Vis test results show that the absorption peak of Co $_{\text{3}}$ O $_{\text{4}}$ /TiO $_{\text{2}}$ is significantly higher than that of single-layer TiO $_{\text{2}}$ at 400–1000 nm. With the addition of nano-Cu, the plasmon resonance of Cu makes the absorption peak performance of Cu/Co $_{\text{3}}$ O $_{\text{4}}$ /TiO $_{\text{2}}$ better. The measured J-V curve shows that the photoelectric conversion efficiency of Cu/Co $_{\text{3}}$ O $_{\text{4}}$ /TiO $_{\text{2}}$ is 6.57%, about 30.3% higher than that of Co $_{\text{3}}$ O $_{\text{4}}$ /TiO $_{\text{2}}$ photoanode, which has a promising application prospect in dye-sensitive solar cells.