Energy Sources Part A-recovery Utilization and Environmental Effects, Vol.34, No.19, 1815-1824, 2012
The Role of Ascorbic Acid in a Photogalvanic Solar Cell Containing a Crystal Violet-diocyle Sulphosuccinate System and to Study the Energy Efficiency of the Cell
In the present article, the energy efficiency of the photo galvanic cell is studied by using crystal violet as a photosensitizer; ascorbic acid is used as an electron donor in the presence of surfactant diocyle sulphosuccinate. The photopotential and photocurrent generated by this cell were 754 mV and 195 mu A, respectively. Power point and conversion efficiency of the cell is 0.40 and 0.69%, respectively. The effect of various parameters, such as pH; light intensity; diffusion length; temperature on cell photopotential and photocurrent; and variation of reductant, surfactant, and dye concentration, was also studied. The current voltage (i-V) characteristic of the cell has also been observed and a tentative mechanism for the generation of photocurrent has been proposed. Performance of the cell was determined in the dark at its power point and represented as t(1/2).
Keywords:energy efficiency;fill factor;photocurrent;photogalvanic cell;photopotential;solar energy conversion