Highly efficient ZnO/Au Schottky barrier dye-sensitized solar cells: Role of gold nanoparticles on the charge-transfer process

• Tanujjal Bora,
• Htet H. Kyaw,
• Soumik Sarkar,
• Samir K. Pal and
• Joydeep Dutta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 681–690, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.73

• -photon-count (TCSPC) spectroscopy technique was used to explore the charge-transfer mechanism in the ZnO/Au-nanocomposite DSSC. Due to the formation of the Schottky barrier at the ZnO/Au interface and the higher optical absorptions of the ZnO/Au photoelectrodes arising from the surface plasmon absorption

• of the Au nanoparticles, enhanced power-conversion efficiency (PCE) of 6.49% for small-area (0.1 cm2) ZnO/Au-nanocomposite DSSC was achieved compared to the 5.34% efficiency of the bare ZnO nanorod DSSC. The TCSPC studies revealed similar dynamics for the charge transfer from dye molecules to ZnO

• , we explore the charge-transfer process in a ZnO/Au-nanocomposite photoelectrode for DSSC application. From the spectroscopic studies, we demonstrate that the enhancement in DSSC performance in the presence of Au nanoparticles with the ZnO nanorods is primarily due to the formation of a Schottky

Single-pass Kelvin force microscopy and dC/dZ measurements in the intermittent contact: applications to polymer materials

• Sergei Magonov and
• John Alexander

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 15–27, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.2

• with dielectric spectroscopy [18], were studied with AFM probe at a single location. Furthermore, these studies were extended to dC/dZ mapping of a PVAC/PS blend at different temperatures in UHV [19] and to studies of a PVAC-based nanocomposite material [20]. We initiated KFM and dC/dZ measurements of

Fabrication and spectroscopic studies on highly luminescent CdSe/CdS nanorod polymer composites

• Jana Bomm,
• Andreas Büchtemann,
• Angela Fiore,
• Liberato Manna,
• James H. Nelson,
• Diana Hill and
• Wilfried G. J. H. M. van Sark

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2010, 1, 94–100, doi:10.3762/bjnano.1.11

• 12 nm in length (aspect ratio 3). P(LMA-co-EGDM) nanocomposites Clear nanocomposite plates without bubbles and smooth surfaces with sizes up to 8 × 8 × 0.5 cm3 were obtained (Figure 4c, Figure 5c). TEM measurements were performed on thin cryo-cut nanocomposite slices (770 × 540 × 60 nm3). The TEM

• image of a P(LMA-co-EGDM) nanocomposite slice containing 0.05 wt % aspect ratio 6 NRs is shown in Figure 4b: clearly, single NRs are homogeneously dispersed within the polymer matrix. We have counted a total number of 116 nanorods in 5 TEM images from different nanocomposite slices, which implies a NR

• concentration of ~1.5 µM. Figure 5b shows a TEM image of a nanocomposite containing 0.05 wt % NRs with an aspect ratio of 3. From a total number of 99 single distributed nanorods in 6 nanocomposite slices we deduce a NR concentration of ~1.1 µM within the P(LMA-co-EGDM) matrix. Thus, molar concentrations for