Fabrication of Ag nanoparticles adhered on RGO based on both electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs)

Abstract The electrode plays an important role in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Preparation of the electrode should be simple and should result in high performance of its DSSC. We herein demonstrated high-performance and easily prepared Silver nanoparticles adhered on Reduced graphene oxide–Platinum composites (Ag–RGO/Pt) as counter electrodes (CEs) and TiO2 on RGO sheets with Ag (TiO2–RGO/Ag) as photoanode (PE) in DSSCs. The 1:2 Ag–RGO/Pt CE and 0.5% TiO2–RGO/Ag PE showed an overall highest power conversion efficiency of 9.15% under (1.5 AM) solar irradiation. The optimal weight ratio of Ag:RGO:Pt materials was also examined. Moreover, we showed that incorporation of Ag nanoparticles into the counter electrode successfully improved interfacial charge transfer resulting in high electrocatalytic activity for the reduction of triiodide to iodide redox, which in turn could enhance the performance of the DSSCs.