Plasmonic DSSC performance of spray deposited Ag-ZnO and Au-ZnO films

Abstract Plasmonic silver-ZnO (Ag-ZnO) and gold-ZnO (Au-ZnO) thin films were deposited by simple and cost-effective spray pyrolysis technique (SPT). The compositional and optical properties of deposited films were investigated by XPS and UV-Vis spectroscopy, respectively. The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) related absorption peaks were observed in visible region.Also, the effect of metal addition on the photovoltaic performance was investigated. By utilizing Au–ZnO and Ag–ZnO films as photoanodes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), the photovoltaic performance was improved. The photoconversion efficiencies of 0.93 % and 1.7 % were obtained for Ag–ZnO and Au-ZnO based DSSCs, respectively.