Solar energy conversion to electricity by Tris (2,2′-bipyirdyl) ruthenium (II) chloride hexahydrate-diethyl ammonium tetrachloroferrate-oxalic acid photogalvanic cell: Statistical analysis

Abstract

Surfactants are commonly used in photogalvanic cells (PGC) while few studies have reported on the application of ionic liquids (IL), although it is considered as green solvents. In this work, diethyl ammonium tetrachloroferrate (DATF) was synthesized by two-step method. The chemical structure of the DATF was studied using FTIR and 1H NMR spectra. PGC can be pronounced as an electrochemical cell in which the change in both voltage and current produced from photochemical changes in the solutions during the oxidation-reduction reaction. A new system of synthetic solution contains Tris (2,2′-bipyridyl) Ruthenium (II) chloride hexahydrate (TBRC) photosensitizer dye, Oxalic acid (OX) reductant, and DATF was used under artificial illumination. The used system shows electrical cell performance of maximum power (PPP) 96.2 μW, short-circuit current (iSC) 370 μA, open circuit potential (VOC) 650 mV, conversion efficiency (η) 1.9 %, and fill factor (FF) 0.4. The storage capacity (t0.5) of the cell has recorded 105 min in dark. Different parameters affect the cell performance as were studied. The cell parameters and a preliminary mechanism of the production of electrical energy in PGC were also proposed. Response surface methodology (RSM) approach was used to optimize the process parameters and identifying the optimal conditions of the effect of pH, TBRC, DATF, and OX concentrations. Central composite experimental design (CCD) with response surface and optimization was used to predict the photopotential, photocurrent, Ppp and η. Statistical analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out to identify the adequacy of the developed model and revealed good agreement between the experimental data and proposed model. The observed R2 value, adj. R2, pred. R2, and “F-values” indicate that the developed models are significant.