Surface plasmonic effect of Ag enfold ZnO pyramid nanostructured photoanode for enhanced dye sensitized solar cell application. Issue 17 (1st December 2018) - Manikandan, V.S.
Abstract: A green approach to synthesize three dimensional pyramid structured ZnO and Ag decorated ZnO nanoparticles were developed by one pot hydrothermal method and they were successfully applied as photoanode for DSSC. Neem extract was utilized to control the size of Ag particles. The structural and morphological properties of synthesized samples of ZnO and Ag-ZnO nanocomposites have been investigated by XRD, FESEM, and HRTEM analysis respectively. The XPS studies were performed for scrutinizing the binding energy of ZnO and Ag-ZnO nanostructured materials. The UV–VIS absorption spectrum of Ag-ZnO nanostructure displaced absorption towards visible region than the pristine ZnO. The electrochemical properties of both ZnO and Ag-ZnO nanostructure were studied using EIS (Electrochemical impedance spectra). The photoconversion efficiency of Ag-ZnO based DSSC cell showed an efficiency of 3.51% which has higher conversion efficiency than pristine ZnO (2.62%). Graphical abstract: