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The effects of Polyvinylpyrrolidone on the Au sizes, dispersion and enhancement of absorption spectra of the nanoparticles Au/TiO2 solutions for application in plasmonic solar cell

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Abstract

The nanoparticles Au/TiO2 embedded system plays a very important role in the plasmonic solar cell. Recently the scientists have focused their research both on the theoretical and technological problems. One of research orientations is focused on optimizing the characterizations of Au/TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) for increasing efficiency of the plasmonic solar cell. This paper outlines the synthesis methods and some technological developments for preparation of the Au(10 %)/TiO2 and Au(40 %)/TiO2 solutions in the presence of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) with different reaction rates of sodium borohydride adding into chemical reaction to control the Au NPs sizes, densities and dispersion of Au NPs being in Au/TiO2 NPs solution aiming to make the suitable Au/TiO2 thin film for application in plasmonic solar cell. The morphological, structural, absorption spectra of the Au/TiO2 NPs solutions in the presence of PVP and without PVP are investigated by the HRTEM, EDX, XRD and UV–Vis spectroscopy techniques. Depending on the technological conditions, in presence of PVP, the synthesized Au NPs being in Au/TiO2 solutions have their sizes are in range of 3–4 nm and of 8–10 nm with uniformly dispersed for the cases of slow reaction rate, and fast reaction rate, respectively, meanwhile the results of Au NPs synthesized without PVP which has different Au sizes, not uniformly dispersed. Based on experiment results the role and effects of PVP on controllable Au sizes, NPs densities and on the enhancement of the absorption spectra from peaks of 600 nm to the violet range are investigated and discussed.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their gratitude to the NAFOSTED for financial funding the basic research project with code 103.02-2013.47 in period from 2014 to 2017, also many thanks to the supports of Institute of Materials Science (IMS), Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Energy Materials and Devices Lab, Institute of Materials Science, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), 18 Hoang Quoc Viet Road, Cau Giay District, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Tien Thanh Nguyen, Thi Thuy Nguyen, Hong Trang Pham & Khac An Dao

  2. Faculty of Physics, University of Natural Science, Hanoi National University, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Duy Thien Nguyen & Van Vu Le

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  1. Tien Thanh Nguyen
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  2. Thi Thuy Nguyen
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  3. Hong Trang Pham
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  6. Khac An Dao
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Correspondence to Khac An Dao.

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Nguyen, T.T., Nguyen, T.T., Pham, H. et al. The effects of Polyvinylpyrrolidone on the Au sizes, dispersion and enhancement of absorption spectra of the nanoparticles Au/TiO2 solutions for application in plasmonic solar cell. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 27, 11379–11389 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-016-5263-1

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