Enhanced Performance of Dye-Sensitized TiO2 Solar Cells Incorporating COOH-Functionalized Si Nanoparticles

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) treated with COOH-functionalized Si (Si-COOH) nanoparticles exhibited it higher short-circuit photocurrent density (J(sc)) and open-circuit voltage than the corresponding untreated DSSC. The enhanced J(sc) is attributed to the sensitization resulting indirectly from the N719 dye attached to the Si-COOH nanoparticles by intramolecular charge transfer and directly from the Si nanoparticles anchored onto the TiO2 film. As it result of the improved performance, the overall energy conversion efficiency wits increased by 17%, its compared to that for a reference cell without the Si-COOH nanoparticles at 100 mW cm(-2).