Use of surfactant in photogalvanic cell for solar energy conversion and storage: NaLS-Glycerol-Azure A

The photovoltaic cells involve direct excitation of an electron by a photon and thus producing electricity. The photovoltaic cells have high conversion efficiency but lack of storage capacity whereas the photogalvanic cell are based on some chemical reactions which give rise to highly energy products on excitation by photon and these energy rich products lose energy electrochemically. The efforts have been made to reach a desired amount of conversion efficiency and storage capacity by the addition of surfactants. The photogalvanic cells containing Glycerol as reductant, Azure A as photo sensitizer and NaLS as anionic surfactant has been investigated for solar energy and storage. The photopotential, photocurrent and power generated by this photogalvanic cell were 855.0 mV, 250.0 muA and 213.75 muW respectively. The conversion efficiency of the cell was determined as 1.1826% and fill factor was 8.4762. The current voltage characteristics of the cell have also been studied. The effect of different parameters of electrical output of the cell was investigated and a mechanism for the generation of the photocurrent in this photogalvanic cell has also been proposed.