Influence of silver doping on surface defect characteristics of TiO{sub 2}
In the present work, we proposed a novel silver doped TiO{sub 2} polyethylene conjugated films to improve the performance of DSSCs. Oxides nanoparticles dispersed in a semiconducting polymer form the active layer of a solar cell. Localized surface plasmon resonance effects associated with spatially dispersed silver (Ag) nanoparticles can be exploited to enhance the light-harvesting efficiency, the photocurrent density and the overall light-to electrical-energy-conversion efficiency of high-area DSSCs based TiO{sub 2} photoanodes. Silver doped titanium dioxide (TiO{sub 2}:Ag) is prepared by sol-gel technique and deposited on fluorine doped indium oxide (FTO) coated glass substrates by using doctor blade technique at 550°C from aqueous solutions of titanium butoxide and silver nitrate precursors. The effect of Ag doping on electrical properties of films is studied. The Ag-TiO{sub 2} films are about 548 times more photosensitive as compare to the pure TiO{sub 2} sample. The presence of metallic Ag nanoparticles and oxygen vacancy on the surface of TiO{sub 2} nanoparticles promotes the separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and thus enhances the photosensitivity. Photoconduction mechanism of all prepared samples is investigated by performing transient photoconductivity measurements on TiO{sub 2} and Ag-TiO{sub 2} films keeping intensity of light constant.