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Efficient Plasmonic Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells with Fluorescent Au‐Encapsulated C‐Dots
Author(s) -
Narayanan Remya,
Deepa Melepurath,
Srivastava Avanish Kumar,
Shivaprasad Sonnada Math
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
chemphyschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.016
H-Index - 140
eISSN - 1439-7641
pISSN - 1439-4235
DOI - 10.1002/cphc.201300958
Subject(s) - dye sensitized solar cell , nanorod , förster resonance energy transfer , materials science , quantum dot , plasmon , energy conversion efficiency , surface plasmon resonance , optoelectronics , nanotechnology , auxiliary electrode , fluorescence , solar cell , electrolyte , electrode , nanoparticle , chemistry , optics , physics
Abstract A simple strategy to improve the efficiency of a ZnO‐nanorod‐based dye‐sensitized solar cell (DSSC) by use of Au‐encapsulated carbon dots (Au@C‐dots) in the photoanode is presented. The localized surface plasmonic resonance of Au in the 500–550 nm range coupled with the ability of C‐dots to undergo charge separation increase the energy‐harvesting efficiency of the DSSC with ZnO/N719/Au@C‐dots photoanodes. Charge transfer from N719 dye to Au@C‐dots is confirmed by fluorescence and lifetime enhancements of Au@C‐dots. Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) from the gap states of ZnO nanorods to N719 dye is also ratified and the energy transfer rate is 4.4×10 8 s −1 and the Forster radius is 1.89 nm. The overall power conversion efficiency of the plasmonic and FRET‐enabled DSSC with ZnO/N719/Au@C‐dots as the photoanode, I 2 /I − as the electrolyte and multiwalled carbon nanotubes as the counter electrode is 4.1 %, greater by 29 % compared to a traditional ZnO/N719 cell.