Surface plasmon resonance effect enhanced upconversion luminescence in Ag modified NaYF4: Yb/Er for photovoltaic efficiency improvement under solar irradiation

Shaoqi Zhu, Guanhong Lu, Xiao Wang, Tingsen Liu, Yongtai He, Jing Sun and Xiaofeng Xie

Renewable Energy, 2025, vol. 248, issue C

Abstract: Highly efficient upconversion materials are currently a major interest in photovoltaic research and industry. However, the existing upconversion luminescent materials exhibit low luminescence intensity and weak infrared light conversion efficiency, which impede the advancement of this field. In this study, core-shell structures of NaYF4: Yb/Er@TiO2 with plasmonic silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) uniformly dispersed on the surface were successfully prepared by an in-situ reduction reaction. The incorporation of Ag NPs into the NaYF4: Yb/Er@TiO2 core-shell structures was found to result in a significant increase in photovoltaic power generation efficiency, reaching 4.81 % under sunlight irradiation. In comparison to the efficiencies of NaYF4: Yb/Er@TiO2 without silver powder (1.37 times higher) and NaYF4: Yb/Er (2.19 times higher), both values demonstrate a notable improvement. This result is markedly superior to other documented instances of enhanced photovoltaic characteristics through spectral conversion. A mechanistic analysis indicates that this is due to the presence of silver nanoparticles, which enhance the electromagnetic field surrounding the converted luminescent particles on the surface of NaYF4: Yb/Er@TiO2. This improves their absorption and utilization of sunlight. The SPR-enhanced photovoltaic efficiency mechanism in this work is rarely reported and has important research and practical value.

Keywords: Upconversion; Rare-earth; Plasmonic; Photovoltaic cell (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:248:y:2025:i:c:s0960148125007244

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2025.123062

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