The Role of Surfactants in Photogalvanics: Solar Energy Conversion and Storage in the Sodium Lauryl Sulphate-Thymol Blue-Mannose System

摘要

Sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) was used as a surfactant, thymol blue as a photosensitizer and mannose as a reductant in a photogalvanic cell to improve the conversion efficiency and storage capacity of such cells to achieve commercial viability. The photopotential and photocurrent generated were 635.0 mV and 100.0 iA, respectively. The effect of various parameters including concentration of photosensitizer, reductant and surfactant, pH and diffusion length on the cell properties was observed. The observed conversion efficiency and the maximum power of the cell were 0.23% and 24.60 |i.W, respectively. The fill factor was 0.25 at the power point of the cell. The photogalvanic cell can be used for 37 minutes in the dark following illumination for 120 minutes. The current-voltage characteristics of the photogalvanic cell were studied experimentally. All of the results observed for the system were lower in absence of surfactant. The absorption spectra of the systems with and without surfactant were also studied.