Abstract
With the rapid commercialization of solar and wind power as supplements and potential substitutes of fossil fuels, the need for power storage techniques to render renewable energy sources impervious to climatic variations has gained significant importance recently. In addition to this requirement of power storage, photo-galvanic (PG) cells hold special significance because these photo-electrochemical devices are capable of simultaneous solar power generation and storage. PG cells with performance as high as 649.6 μW power (Ppp), 2250 μA current (isc), 1048 mV potential (Voc), 8.12% conversion efficiency (CE), and 59 minutes power storage capacity (as half-time, t0.5) have been reported under artificial and low illumination intensities. To enable PG cells, a future source of solar energy conversion, with storage as well, their efficiency must be improved further to a level comparable to that of photovoltaic cells. The metanil yellow dye (photo-sensitizer)-formic acid (reductant) couple has not been exploited to date for this purpose. Therefore, in the present study, the metanil yellow dye as a photosensitizer and formic acid as a reductant have been used in the presence of sodium lauryl sulfate surfactant and sodium hydroxide alkaline medium to further increase the solar energy conversion efficiency and storage capacity of PG cells. The present study reports greatly enhanced electrical performance (compared to earlier results for similar cells) of Ppp 822 μW, isc 6000 μA, Voc 1110 mV, CE 20.41%, and t0.5 105 minutes. On the basis of the redox potential and reported data, a plausible mechanism has also been proposed for the photo-generation of current in metanil yellow-formic acid photogalvanics.
Highlights
A photogalvanic (PG) cell is a device in which light is absorbed by an electrolyte solution containing a sensitizer, giving rise to a high energy excited sensitizer species
The study of the effects of the variation of various variables, such as the concentrations of metanil yellow dye, formic acid, sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), and NaOH, shows that the values of these variables affect the electrical performance of the cell at arti cial sunlight intensity, and the cell has optimum performance at optimal values of the variables
The results in the present work are higher with respect to previous work[16,27,28,29,37] and are consistent with the aim of undertaking this work to further increase the electrical performance of PG cells
Summary
A photogalvanic (PG) cell is a device in which light is absorbed by an electrolyte solution containing a sensitizer, giving rise to a high energy excited sensitizer species. These high energy species lose energy electrochemically, leading to solar power generation and storage. The PG cell is a prominent example of photo-electrochemical systems consisting of anodic and cathodic electrodes dipped in a solution mixture of compulsory chemicals such as photo-sensitizer(s), reductant(s) and an alkali. PG cells are based on the photo-galvanic effect, in which light has an in uence on the electrode potential due to a photochemical process in the bulk of the electrolyte. The photogalvanic effect is a special type of Becquerel effect
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