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

Abstract

In the present article, the energy efficiency of the photogalvanic 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 μA, 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