USE OF ACID RED-36 DYE AS PHOTOSENSITIZER IN PHOTOGALVANIC CELL FOR SOLAR ENERGY CONVERSION AND STORAGE

Abstract

Acid red-36 dye was used as photosensitizer with EDTA in alkaline medium to enhance the performance of photogalvanic solar cell for its commercial viability. In this study, the obtained cell performance in terms of storage capacity (as half life) was 160 min in dark upon irradiation for 180 min. The photopotential, photocurrent, power at power point, fill factor and conversion efficiency were 685 mV, 230μA, 71.50μW, 0.45 and 2.75 %, respectively. The effect of variation of different parameters like concentration of dye, reductant concentration, pH, light intensity, electrode area, diffusion length are observed. A current-voltage (i-V) characteristics of the cell and variation of pH during illumination was studied. It was observed that the pH of solution decrease during illumination of cell.