Fabrication and Performance Analysis of TiO2 based Photo Electro Chemical Cell

Abstract

The photo electro chemical (PEC) cell involves a chemical reaction of water, titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) and silver nano particles. The TiO2 used in this paper, acts as a photo catalyst and silver nano particles (AgNP) enhances the conductivity. Along with the aforesaid, carbon particles have been used as light absorber and the electrodes act as charge collectors. The PEC fabricated in this work is capable of producing free hydrogen, thus, enhancing the hydrogen economy. Among all the procedures for hydrogen generation, PEC is the most efficient process. For both normal electrolysis and brown gas generator (HHO) kit, external electricity requirement is the main constraint. But in PEC process there is no need of external electricity for hydrogen generation. For the fabrication of PEC, a container has been used to mix water, TiO 2 , silver nano particles and carbon particles. After setting up of the experimental setup, the model has been tested for both dark and bright conditions. The simulations and outdoor experiments have been done using PEC model of 20gm TiO 2 in 200ml of water, under Standard Test Conditions. Simulations were carried out in CHEMCAD version 7 to obtain the output hydrogen and output oxygen. According to the simulation results, the amount of volume of hydrogen and oxygen output are 0.6206 moles and 0.3103 moles respectively. Due to the low efficiency of power generation by the PEC system, the widespread use of PEC has not been possible on a regular basis. The negative effect of corrosion on the whole process has been depicted experimentally in this paper and an alternative has also been proposed. The electrolysis process has been tested with both Potassium hydroxide (KOH) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) as electrolyte separately with the water. From the results, it is observed that KOH is better for generation of HHO gas.