A surface plasmon enabled liquid-junction photovoltaic cell

Journal Article · Thu Oct 16 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Faraday Discussions

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/c4fd00185k· OSTI ID:1369745

Lee, Woo-ram ^[1]; Mubeen, Syed ^[2]; Stucky, Galen D. ^[1]; Moskovits, Martin ^[1]

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1. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; University of California; Santa Barbara, USA
2. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; University of California; Santa Barbara, USA; Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering; University of Iowa

Plasmonic nanosystems have recently been shown to be capable of functioning as photovoltaics and of carrying out redox photochemistry, purportedly using the energetic electrons and holes created following plasmonic decay as charge carriers. Although such devices currently have low efficiency, they already manifest a number of favorable characteristics, such as their tunability over the entire solar spectrum and a remarkable resistance to photocorrosion. Here, we report a plasmonic photovoltaic using a 25 μm thick electrolytic liquid junction which supports the iodide/triiodide (I^-/I₃^-) redox couple. The device produces photocurrent densities in excess of 40 μA cm^-2, an open circuit voltage (V_oc) of ~0.24 V and a fill factor of ~0.5 using AM 1.5 G solar radiation at 100 mW cm^-2. The photocurrent and the power conversion efficiency are primarily limited by the low light absorption in the 2-D gold nanoparticle arrays. The use of a liquid junction greatly reduces dielectric breakdown in the oxide layers utilized, which must be very thin for optimal performance, leading to a great improvement in the long-term stability of the cell's performance.

• Research Organization: Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Energy Efficient Materials (CEEM)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
• DOE Contract Number: SC0001009
• OSTI ID: 1369745
• Journal Information: Faraday Discussions, Vol. 178; Related Information: CEEM partners with the University of California, Santa Barbara (lead); Purdue University; Los Alamos National Laboratory; National Renewable Energy Laboratory; ISSN 1359-6640
• Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English