Role of surfactant in the studies of solar energy conversion and storage: CTABRhodamine 6G-oxalic acid system

Abstract

The photogalvanic effect, studied in a photogalvanic cell containing cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as surfactant, Rhodamine 6G as photosensitizer and oxalic acid as reductant, is reported. The effects of concentrations of surfactant photosensitizer and reductant, pH, diffusion length, electrode area and temperature on electrical output of the cell are reported. The observed photopotential and photoculTent are 414.0 mV and 90.0 μA, respectively. The observed conversion efficiency is 0.55 %, fill factor is 0.45 and the maximum power output of cell is 25.22 μW. The photogalvanie cell can be used for 96 minutes in the dark (the storage capacity of cell in dark). A mechanism has also been proposed for the generation of photoeurrent in photogalvanic cell. Dye-surfactant spectra have also been studied.