Andrei Codrin, Lestini Elena, Crosbie Stephen, de Frein Caoimhe, O'Reilly Thomas, Zerulla Dominic
Plasmonics and Ultrafast NanoOptics Group, School of Physics, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland; School of Mathematical Sciences, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
Plasmonics and Ultrafast NanoOptics Group, School of Physics, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
PLoS One. 2014 Oct 29;9(10):e109836. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0109836. eCollection 2014.
A substantial and stable increase of the current density Jsc of ruthenium (Ru) dye sensitized solar cells (DSC) of up to 16.18% and of the power efficiency of up to 25.5% is demonstrated in this article via plasmonic enhancement. The key aspect of this work is the use of a tailored bimodal size distribution of functionalized gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) that have been chemically immobilized onto the mesoporous titanium dioxide (TiO2) layer via short, stable dithiodibutyric acid linkers. The size distribution of the AuNPs is a result of theoretical calculations that aimed at the perfection of the absorption characteristics of the complete solar cell system over a wide range of wavelengths. The functionalization of the AuNPs serves to bind them at a close but defined distance to TiO2-particles and additionally to chemically protect them against potential corrosion by the electrolyte. Simulations of near field (enhanced absorption) and far field (scattering) contributions have been used to tailor a complex AuNPs bimodal size distribution that had subsequently demonstrated experimentally a close to optimum improvement of the absorbance over a wide wavelength range (500-675 nm) and therefore an impressive DSC efficiency enhancement. Finally, the modified DSCs are exhibiting pronounced longevity and stable performance as confirmed via long time measurements. In summary, the presented systems show increased performance compared to non plasmonic enhanced cells with otherwise identical composition, and are demonstrating a previously unpublished longevity for iodide electrolyte/AuNPs combinations.
本文通过等离子体增强证明了钌（Ru）染料敏化太阳能电池（DSC）的电流密度Jsc大幅稳定增加，增幅高达16.18%，功率效率提高到25.5%。这项工作的关键在于使用了定制的功能化金纳米颗粒（AuNP）双峰尺寸分布，这些颗粒通过短而稳定的二硫代二丁酸连接体化学固定在介孔二氧化钛（TiO2）层上。AuNP的尺寸分布是理论计算的结果，该计算旨在完善整个太阳能电池系统在宽波长范围内的吸收特性。AuNP的功能化有助于将它们以紧密但确定的距离与TiO2颗粒结合，此外还能对其进行化学保护，防止电解质的潜在腐蚀。近场（增强吸收）和远场（散射）贡献的模拟被用于定制复杂的AuNP双峰尺寸分布，随后通过实验证明，该分布在宽波长范围（500 - 675 nm）内使吸光度接近最佳改善，从而显著提高了DSC效率。最后，通过长时间测量证实，改性后的DSC表现出显著的寿命和稳定的性能。总之，与组成相同但无等离子体增强的电池相比，本文所展示的系统性能有所提高，并且证明了碘化物电解质/AuNP组合具有前所未有的长寿命。
