Semiconductor overlayers for protecting silver nanoparticles of dye sensitized solar cells based on atomic layer deposition

摘要

Silver nanoparticles have been found many interesting applications, such as absorption amplifiers in dye-sensitized solar cells. However, silver nanoparticles are easily oxidized. In order to protect silver nanoparticles, atomic layers of TiO_2 were deposited onto silver nanoparticles coated to a glass slide. Then the glass slide was exposed to corrosive I~-/I_3~-solutions, and the degree of silver etching was measured via scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UVS). It was found that 3 nm (30 cycles) of Al_2O_3 with 9 nm of (90 cycles) TiO_2 could completely protect silver nanoparticles from oxidization.