Center for Organic Electronic and Alternative Energy, Department of Chemistry and Center of Excellence for Innovation in Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Ubon Ratchathani University , Ubon Ratchathani 34190, Thailand.
School of Medical Instrument and Food Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology , Shanghai 200093, China.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2017 Jan 25;9(3):2396-2402. doi: 10.1021/acsami.6b13069. Epub 2017 Jan 11.
Charge recombination and transfer at the TiO/dye/electrolyte interface play a crucial role in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Here, a fine-controlled gold nanoparticle (Au NP) via electrodeposition incorporated into a porous TiO photoanode and dodecanethiol molecules as an assembled monolayer capping on Au NPs was designed and prepared. The "fence-like" structure of gold thiol molecules at the TiO/dye/electrolyte interface can not only insulate the electrolyte to suppress recombination but also make full use of the plasmon-enhanced light absorption of Au NPs. The photoanodes were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV-vis absorption, and Mott-Schottky analyses. Compared to pure TiO, the DSSC with an interface "fence" structure achieved an efficiency (η) of 8.17%, increasing by 10.4%. The enhancement results are essentially attributed to the increase of the light-harvesting and electron collection properties, accompanying a slight promotion in the Fermi level. Furthermore, after dodecanethiol molecule treatment, the Au NPs with an intensified near-field effect also acted as electron sinks to store more electrons and exhibited a well electron-transport performance from electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis.
在染料敏化太阳能电池（DSSCs）中，TiO2/染料/电解质界面处的电荷复合和转移起着至关重要的作用。在此，我们通过电化学沉积设计并制备了一种精细控制的金纳米颗粒（Au NP），并将其掺入多孔 TiO2 光阳极中，同时使用十二硫醇分子作为 Au NPs 的组装单层盖帽。Au 硫醇分子在 TiO2/染料/电解质界面处的“围栏状”结构不仅可以隔离电解质以抑制复合，还可以充分利用 Au NPs 的等离子体增强光吸收。通过 X 射线光电子能谱、紫外-可见吸收和 Mott-Schottky 分析对光电阳极进行了表征。与纯 TiO2 相比，具有界面“围栏”结构的 DSSC 的效率（η）提高到了 8.17%，提高了 10.4%。增强效果主要归因于光捕获和电子收集性能的提高，同时费米能级略有提升。此外，经过十二硫醇分子处理后，具有增强近场效应的 Au NPs 还可以作为电子阱来存储更多电子，并通过电化学阻抗谱分析表现出良好的电子传输性能。
