Petroleum waste as raw materials for production of electricity by Photogalvanic solar cell

Abstract

• Successful synthesis of SDBS anionic surfactant from petroleum waste. • Chemical structure of the produced material through FTIR, HNMR, and 13CNMR. • Using of the synthesized surfactant in the photogalvanic cell for solar energy conversion. • The used system containing Tris (2,2′-bipyrdyl) Ruthenium (II) chloride hexahydrate as photosensitize, Oxalic acid as reductant, and SDBS as anionic surfactant . • The cell performance showed (PPP) 39.8μW, short circuit current (iSC)145.2 μA, open circuit potential (VOC) 490 mV, fill factor (FF) 0.65, conversion efficiency (η) 0.77%, and storage capacity t0.5 65 min. Petroleum industry produces a bulky rate of harmful environmental wastes. Recycling of these wastes to produce added value products is of prim importance. In this work, Synthesis of sodium 4-dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) anionic surfactant from petroleum waste was done through two steps method. The composition of the produced anionic surfactant was investigated by using FTIR, 1 HNMR, and 13CNMR spectra techniques. Anionic surfactant was applied in photogalvanic cell (PGC) for production of electricity. PGC can be described as an electrochemical cell where the change in both voltage and current arises from the generated photochemical changes in the reactants during the oxidation–reduction reaction in the cell. the recorded electrical cell performance are; maximum power (P PP ) 39.8μW, short circuit current (i SC )145.2 μA, open circuit potential (V OC ) 490 mV, fill factor (FF) 0.65, conversion efficiency (η) 0.77%, and storage capacity t 0.5 65 min for system containing Tris (2,2′-bipyrdyl) Ruthenium (II) chloride hexahydrate (TBRC) as photosensitize, Oxalic acid (OX) as reductant, and (SDBS) as anionic surfactant under artificial illumination. The cell performance is optimized and the preliminary mechanism for the solar energy conversion in PGC is also proposed.