Effect of Au Decoration on the Performance of Perovskite Solar Cells

In the present work, TiO2 as an electron transport layer (ETL) decorated with gold (Au) nanoparticles is demonstrated. It has been characterized by UV-Visible spectroscopy, FESEM, XRD prior to utilization as an ETL. The decoration of Au nanoparticles on the TiO2 nanorods is confirmed through morphological analysis and depicts uniform decoration of Au nanoparticles while XRD analysis reveals the formation of rutile TiO2 nanorods. The optimum concentration of Au nanoparticles for the device fabrication is achieved by examining device performance parameter such as Voc, fill factor and power conversion efficiency. The plasmonic device shows enhanced performance as compared to bare TiO2 devices. The bare TiO2 exhibits 4.4% power conversion efficiency (PCE) while Au–TiO2 have 6.68% highest PCE. The devices with Au–TiO2 exhibits current density from 16.77 to 17.61 mA cm−2 with Voc in the range of 0.82–0.86 V. Impedance spectroscopy analysis reveals that the decoration of Au nanoparticles reduces the charge transfer resistance. The obtained results reveal that the decoration of Au nanoparticles on the TiO2 nanorods efficiently improves the performance of perovskite solar cells.