Efficient Cu/rGO/TiO2 nanocomposite-based photoanode for highly-optimized plasmonic dye-sensitized solar cells

Renewable energy resources play a valuable role in the global increase of energy demand. The research was performed to enhance the performance of plasmonic dye-sensitized solar cells (PDSSCs) by harvesting the maximum sunlight. In this context, the TiO2 nanoparticles for simple DSSCs and the Cu/rGO/TiO2 nanocomposites for PDSSCs were synthesized using the Sol–Gel and chemical reduction method. Authors demonstrated the utilization of synthesized Cu/rGO/TiO2 nanocomposite-based photoanode to fabricate the plasmonic dye-sensitized solar cells (PDSSCs). SEM, EDX, XRD, and UV/Vis techniques were employed to analyze the surface morphology, elemental composition, crystal structure, and absorbance spectra, respectively. Furthermore, IV measurements were performed on the fabricated devices, and it was observed that the Cu/rGO/TiO2 nanocomposite presented an enhanced efficiency of 5.14% in PDSSCs, which is more than that of the DSSCs-based on pure TiO2 nanoparticles. As an enhanced efficiency could be achieved by high optical absorption and electron injection rate, the PDSSCs with Cu/rGO/TiO2 nanocomposite have an enhanced efficiency due to the surface plasmonic resonance. An improved IPCE of 59.79% was also achieved in Cu/rGO/TiO2 nanocomposite-based photoanode, which might be due to the higher surface area of the photoanode.