Synergistic effect of surface plasmon resonance and constructed hierarchical TiO2 spheres for dye-sensitized solar cells

We demonstrate a strategy for incorporating plasmon resonant metallic nanoparticles in the construction of hierarchical TiO2 spheres. Localized electric fields can be produced by the addition of Au nanoparticles, which can excite dye molecules more effectively than incident far-field light. The synergistic effect of surface plasmon resonance with constructed TiO2 nanostructures has been investigated, and was confirmed by optical spectroscopy, J-V characteristics, EIS analysis and OCVD measurements. When Au nanoparticles are incorporated into the constructed TiO2 spheres, the device achieves a power conversion efficiency of 6.62%, a 4.6% increase compared to the device based on constructed TiO2 spheres without plasmon resonant Au nanoparticles, and a 17.4% increase compared to that without any treatment.