This article focuses on the plasmonic effect of gold nanoparticles incorporated in mesoporous TiO2 photoanode for high efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). We have adopted a facile TiCl4 posttreatment process for coating a thin TiO2 shell over the gold nanoparticles. The device without TiCl4 treatment and containing bare or uncoated gold nanoparticles exhibits a drop in efficiency compared to the control device. The cells fabricated with gold nanoparticles and posttreated with TiCl4 show higher efficiencies than the control device. The improvement in efficiency is attributed to a higher value of photocurrent in the plasmonic devices arising due to the near-field enhancement effects. The TiCl4 treated plasmonic cell provides a short-circuit current density (JSC) of 12.90 mA/cm2 compared to 10.76 mA/cm2 obtained from the control device. The overall power conversion efficiency is enhanced from 4.81% for the control DSSC to 5.71% for the TiCl4 treated plasmonic DSSC. This plasmonic DSSC has also been compared with another type of plasmonic DSSC containing Au@SiO2 core-shell nanoparticles. The photovoltaic performances of the two types of plasmonic DSSCs utilizing dielectric shell coated Au NPs are found to be similar, indicating the suitability of the TiCl4 treatment for facile and reproducible fabrication of plasmonic solar cells.

中文翻译：

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使用介电壳涂覆和未涂覆金纳米颗粒的等离激元染料敏化太阳能电池的比较研究


本文重点研究用于高效染料敏化太阳能电池 (DSSC) 的介孔 TiO2 光阳极中掺入金纳米粒子的等离子体效应。我们采用了一种简便的 TiCl4 后处理工艺，在金纳米颗粒上涂覆一层薄薄的 TiO2 壳。与对照装置相比，未经 TiCl4 处理且含有裸露或未涂覆的金纳米粒子的装置表现出效率下降。用金纳米粒子制造并用 TiCl4 后处理的电池比对照装置显示出更高的效率。效率的提高归因于近场增强效应在等离激元器件中产生更高的光电流值。经过 TiCl4 处理的等离子体电池提供了 12.90 mA/cm2 的短路电流密度 (JSC)，而从控制装置获得的短路电流密度为 10.76 mA/cm2。整体功率转换效率从对照 DSSC 的 4.81% 提高到经过 TiCl4 处理的等离子体 DSSC 的 5.71%。该等离子体 DSSC 还与另一种含有 Au@SiO2 核壳纳米颗粒的等离子体 DSSC 进行了比较。研究发现，两种采用介电壳涂层 Au NP 的等离子体 DSSC 的光伏性能相似，表明 TiCl4 处理适合于等离子体太阳能电池的简便且可重复的制造。