Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Optical absorption modeling of bilayer photoanode based on Cu@TiO2 plasmonic dye sensitized solar cells towards photovoltaic applications

  • Published:
Optical and Quantum Electronics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A periodic array of core–shell Cu@TiO2 nanoparticle for plasmonic dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) in the wavelength range between 350 and 750 nm was studied. The size of copper nanospheres was 70 nm while the length and diameter of the copper nanorods were 100 and 10 nm, respectively. The UV–Visible absorption spectrum showed that the photo-anode based copper added TiO2 has 29.3% absorption capability compared with copper-free TiO2. TiO2 with shell thickness of 5 nm coated copper exhibited the absorption efficiency of 71.9%, while short circuit current density of 17.52 mA cm−2 for Ci@TiO2 photo-anode. This was attributed to a strong localized electric field around ultra-thin TiO2-coated copper nanospheres. The UV–Visible results of different geometries indicated that the spherical-shaped Cu@TiO2 nanoparticles induced the high absorption capability of 3.4% compared to rod-shaped Cu@TiO2 nanoparticles. The hybrid nanorods/nanospheres bilayer photo-anode showed the high optical UV–Visible absorption of 11.42% as compared with nanospheres/nanorods, ascribed to the large surface area for dye-loading excellent light scattering.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ali, Z., Amin, W., Khan, A.D., Khan, A.D., Imran, M. and Noman, M., 2021. Improving the light absorption efficiency in thin-film plasmonic tandem solar cell. J. Optics, 1–8

  • Aneesiya, K.R., Louis, C.: Localized surface plasmon resonance of Cu-doped ZnO nanostructures and the material’s integration in dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) enabling high open-circuit potentials. J. Alloys Compounds 829, 154497 (2020)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Babu, S.G., Vinoth, R., Kumar, D.P., Shankar, M.V., Chou, H.L., Vinodgopal, K., Neppolian, B.: Influence of electron storing, transferring and shuttling assets of reduced graphene oxide at the interfacial copper doped TiO2 p–n heterojunction for increased hydrogen production. Nanoscale 17, 7849–7857 (2015)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Bao, Z., Fu, N., Qin, Y., Lv, J., Wang, Y., He, J., Hou, Y., Jiao, C., Chen, D., Wu, Y., Dai, J.: Broadband plasmonic enhancement of high-efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells by incorporating Au@Ag@SiO2 core-shell nanocuboids. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces. 1, 538–545 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandrasekhar, P.S., Parashar, P.K., Swami, S.K., Dutta, V., Komarala, V.K.: Enhancement of Y123 dye-sensitized solar cell performance using plasmonic gold nanorods. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 14, 9651–9658 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Choudhury, S.A., Nawshin, N. and Chowdhury, M.H., 2017, November. Influence of particle shape on the efficacy of plasmonic metal nanoparticles to enhance the energy conversion efficiency of thin-film solar cells. In Tencon 2017–2017 IEEE Region 10 Conference IEEE. 2393–2398

  • Deng, W., Yuan, Z., Liu, S., Yang, Z., Li, J., Wang, E., Wang, X., Li, J.: Plasmonic enhancement for high-efficiency planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells. J. Power Sources 432, 112–118 (2019)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Dou, Y., Wu, F., Mao, C., Fang, L., Guo, S., Zhou, M.: Enhanced photovoltaic performance of ZnO nanorod-based dye-sensitized solar cells by using Ga doped ZnO seed layer. J. Alloy. Compd. 633, 408–414 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fan, W.J., Chang, Y.Z., Zhao, J.L., Xu, Z.N., Tan, D.Z., Chen, Y.G.: A theoretical study of fused thiophene modified anthracene-based organic dyes for dye-sensitized solar cell applications. New J. Chem. 24, 20163–20170 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ganesh, R.S., Navaneethan, M., Ponnusamy, S., Muthamizhchelvan, C., Kawasaki, S., Shimura, Y., Hayakawa, Y.: Enhanced photon collection of high surface area carbonate-doped mesoporous TiO2 nanospheres in dye sensitized solar cells. Mater. Res. Bull. 101, 353–362 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gao, J., Yang, W., El-Zohry, A.M., Prajapati, G.K., Fang, Y., Dai, J., Hao, Y., Leandri, V., Svensson, P.H., Furó, I., Boschloo, G.: Light-induced electrolyte improvement in cobalt tris (bipyridine)-mediated dye-sensitized solar cells. J. Mater. Chem. A 33, 19495–19505 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ghadari, R., Sabri, A., Saei, P.S., Kong, F.T., Marques, H.M.: Phthalocyanine-silver nanoparticle structures for plasmon-enhanced dye-sensitized solar cells. Sol. Energy 198, 283–294 (2020)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Guli, M., Bimenyimana, T., Deng, M., Chen, S., Long, J.: Enhanced photoelectric performance of nanorod TiO2 film embedded with gold nanoparticles applied in dye sensitized solar cells studied by OptiFDTD. Opt. Mater. 83, 200–206 (2018)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Hao, Y., Song, J., Yang, F., Hao, Y., Sun, Q., Guo, J., Cui, Y., Wang, H., Zhu, F.: Improved performance of organic solar cells by incorporating silica-coated silver nanoparticles in the buffer layer. J. Mater. Chem. C 5, 1082–1090 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hao, Y., Yang, W., Zhang, L., Jiang, R., Mijangos, E., Saygili, Y., Hammarström, L., Hagfeldt, A., Boschloo, G.: A small electron donor in cobalt complex electrolyte significantly improves efficiency in dye-sensitized solar cells. Nat. Commun. 1, 1–8 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hosseinnezhad, M.: Enhanced performance of dye-sensitized solar cells using perovskite/DSSCs tandem design. J. Electron. Mater. 9, 5403–5408 (2019)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Kaur, N., Mahajan, A., Bhullar, V., Singh, D.P., Saxena, V., Debnath, A.K., Aswal, D.K., Devi, D., Singh, F., Chopra, S.: Fabrication of plasmonic dye-sensitized solar cells using ion-implanted photoanodes. RSC Adv. 35, 20375–20384 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaur, N., Mahajan, A., Bhullar, V., Singh, D.P., Saxena, V., Debnath, A.K., Aswal, D.K., Devi, D., Singh, F., Chopra, S.: Ag ion implanted TiO2 photoanodes for fabrication of highly efficient and economical plasmonic dye sensitized solar cells. Chem. Phys. Lett. 740, 137070 (2020)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khan, I., Saeed, K., Khan, I.: Nanoparticles: properties, applications and toxicities. Arab. J. Chem. 7, 908–931 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khurgin, J., Tsai, W.Y., Tsai, D.P., Sun, G.: Landau damping and limit to field confinement and enhancement in plasmonic dimers. ACS Photonics 11, 2871–2880 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kumar, P., Narayan Maiti, U., Sikdar, A., Kumar Das, T., Kumar, A., Sudarsan, V.: Recent advances in polymer and polymer composites for electromagnetic interference shielding: review and future prospects. Polym. Rev. 4, 687–738 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li, X., Zhang, X., Hua, J., Tian, H.: Molecular engineering of organic sensitizers with o, p-dialkoxyphenyl-based bulky donors for highly efficient dye-sensitized solar cells. Mol. Syst. Des. Eng. 2, 98–122 (2017a)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li, J., Liu, J., Chen, C.: Remote control and modulation of cellular events by plasmonic gold nanoparticles: implications and opportunities for biomedical applications. ACS Nano 3, 2403–2409 (2017b)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li, P., Song, C., Wang, Z., Li, J., Zhang, H.: Molecular design towards suppressing electron recombination and enhancing the light-absorbing ability of dyes for use in sensitized solar cells: a theoretical investigation. New J. Chem. 15, 12891–12899 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, Q., Wei, Y., Shahid, M.Z., Yao, M., Xu, B., Liu, G., Jiang, K., Li, C.: Spectrum-enhanced Au@ZnO plasmonic nanoparticles for boosting dye-sensitized solar cell performance. J. Power Sour. 380, 142–148 (2018)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, Q., Sun, Y., Yao, M., Xu, B., Liu, G., Hussain, M.B., Jiang, K., Li, C.: Au@Ag@ Ag2S heterogeneous plasmonic nanorods for enhanced dye-sensitized solar cell performance. Sol. Energy 185, 290–297 (2019)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Ma, J., Gao, S.: Plasmon-induced electron-hole separation at the Ag/TiO2 (110) interface. ACS Nano 12, 13658–13667 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mahmoudabadi, Z.D., Eslami, E.: One-step synthesis of CuO/TiO2 nanocomposite by atmospheric microplasma electrochemistry–Its application as photoanode in dye-sensitized solar cell. J. Alloy. Compd. 793, 336–342 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ni, X., Liu, Z. and Kildishev, A.V., 2007. PhotonicsDB: optical constants. https://nanohub.org/resources/PhotonicsDB

  • Pandey, P., Kunwar, S., Lee, J.: Solid state dewetting of Ag/Pt bilayers for the stronger localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) properties: The dynamic control of surface morphology and elemental composition of AgPt and Pt nanostructures by the auxiliary Ag layer. J. Alloys Compounds 813, 152193 (2020)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rai, P.: Plasmonic noble metal@metal oxide core–shell nanoparticles for dye-sensitized solar cell applications. SUT J. Math. 1, 63–91 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  • Rehman, A.U., Aslam, F., Khan, H.A.: Analyze the absorption properties and IV characterization of dye sensitized solar cell using ruthenium dye. Am. J. Eng. Appl. Sci. 4, 387–390 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rehman, A.U., Aslam, M., Shahid, I., Idrees, M., Khan, A.D., Batool, S., Khan, M.: Enhancing the light absorption in dye-sensitized solar cell by using bilayer composite materials based photo-anode. Optics Commun. 477, 126353 (2020)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ren, Y., Qi, H., Chen, Q., Wang, S., Ruan, L.: Localized surface plasmon resonance of nanotriangle dimers at different relative positions. J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Transfer 199, 45–51 (2017)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Salimi, K., Atilgan, A., Aydin, M.Y., Yildirim, H., Celebi, N., Yildiz, A.: Plasmonic mesoporous core-shell Ag-Au@TiO2 photoanodes for efficient light harvesting in dye sensitized solar cells. Sol. Energy 193, 820–827 (2019)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Saliminasab, M., Garaei, M.A., Moradian, R., Nadgaran, H.: Novel and sensitive core-shell nanoparticles based on surface plasmon resonance. Plasmonics 1, 155–161 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sarker, S., Seo, H.W., Seo, D.W., Kim, D.M.: Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy of dye-sensitized solar cells with different electrode geometry. J. Ind. Eng. Chem. 45, 56–60 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sui, M., Kunwar, S., Pandey, P., Lee, J.: Strongly confined localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) bands of Pt, AgPt, AgAuPt nanoparticles. Sci. Rep. 1, 1–14 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ullah, H., Khan, A.D., Noman, M., Rehman, A.U.: Novel multi-broadband plasmonic absorber based on a metal-dielectric-metal square ring array. Plasmonics 2, 591–597 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ünlü, B., Özacar, M.: Effect of Cu and Mn amounts doped to TiO2 on the performance of DSSCs. Sol. Energy 196, 448–456 (2020)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, D., Zhang, Y., Su, M., Xu, T., Yang, H., Bi, S., Zhang, X., Fang, Y., Zhao, J.: Design of morphology-controllable ZnO nanorods/nanoparticles composite for enhanced performance of dye-sensitized solar cells. Nanomaterials 7, 931–940 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yang, Z., Shao, D., Li, J., Tang, L., Shao, C.: Design of butterfly type organic dye sensitizers with double electron donors: the first principle study. Spectrochim. Acta Part A Mol. Biomol. Spectrosc. 196, 385–391 (2018)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao, A., An, J., Yang, J., Yang, E.H.: Microencapsulated phase change materials with composite titania-polyurea (TiO2-PUA) shell. Appl. Energy 215, 468–478 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. However, the Board of Advanced Studies and Research (BASR), Sarhad University of Science and Technology (SUIT), Peshawar, Pakistan provided the open

research platform and research facilities for this project.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering, Sarhad University of Science and Information Technology, Peshawar, 25220, Pakistan

    Zia Ur Rehman, Anees Ur Rehman & Iqbal Javed

  2. Additive Manufacturing Institute, College of Mechatronics and Control Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, People’s Republic of China

    Muhammad Idrees

  3. Institute of Microscale Optoelectronics, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, People’s Republic of China

    Muhammad Idrees & Saima Batool

  4. Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, People’s Republic of China

    Anees Ur Rehman

  5. Institute for Advanced Study, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, People’s Republic of China

    Saima Batool

  6. Laboratory for Microstructures, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, People’s Republic of China

    Shahid Ali

  7. College of Physics and Information Engineering, Hebei Advanced Thin Films Laboratory, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, 050024, People’s Republic of China

    Muhammad Aslam

  8. US-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Energy, University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar, 25124, Pakistan

    Najeeb Ullah

  9. Department of Physics, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, 23200, Pakistan

    Said Karim Shah

Authors
  1. Zia Ur Rehman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Shahid Ali
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Muhammad Aslam
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Muhammad Idrees
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Anees Ur Rehman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Iqbal Javed
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Najeeb Ullah
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Said Karim Shah
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Saima Batool
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Muhammad Idrees, Anees Ur Rehman or Saima Batool.

Ethics declarations

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts to declare.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Rehman, Z.U., Ali, S., Aslam, M. et al. Optical absorption modeling of bilayer photoanode based on Cu@TiO2 plasmonic dye sensitized solar cells towards photovoltaic applications. Opt Quant Electron 53, 371 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-021-03010-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-021-03010-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation