Preparation and Characterization of Plasmon DSSC Photoanode With High Efficiency Based on Cu/Co3O4/TiO2

In this study, the photoanode of the dye-sensitive solar cell was prepared by using the ternary composite material Cu/Co3O4/TiO2, and the Co3O4 was prepared by hydrothermal method and deposited on the surface of the TiO2 photoelectrode, and the copper nanoparticles were prepared by reduction method and attached to the surface of Co3O4/TiO2. The morphology of Cu/Co3O4/TiO2 was analyzed by SEM and TEM, and the crystal characteristics of Cu/Co3O4/TiO2 were characterized through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). UV–Vis test results show that the absorption peak of Co3O4/TiO2 is significantly higher than that of single-layer TiO2 at 400–1000 nm. With the addition of nano-Cu, the plasmon resonance of Cu makes the absorption peak performance of Cu/Co3O4/TiO2 better. The measured J-V curve shows that the photoelectric conversion efficiency of Cu/Co3O4/TiO2 is 6.57%, about 30.3% higher than that of Co3O4/TiO2 photoanode, which has a promising application prospect in dye-sensitive solar cells.