Improvement of the Photogalvanic Cell for Solar Energy Conversion and Storage: Rose Bengal–Oxalic Acid -Tween 80 System

In our work, Rose Bengal was used as photosensitizer with Oxalic acid as reductant and Tween 80 as surfactant for the enhancement of the conversion efficiency and storage capacity of photogalvanic cell for its commercial viability. The observed value of the photogeneration of photopotential was 666 mV and photocurrent was 119.5 μA whereas maximum power of the cell was 79.58 μW. The observed power at power point was 22.308 μW and the conversion efficiency was 0.258%. The fill factor 0.328 was experimentally determined at the power point of the cell. The photogalvanic cell so developed can work for 230 min in dark on irradiation for 72 min, i.e. the storage capacity of the photogalvanic cell is. The effects of different parameters on electrical output of the cell were observed and a tentative mechanism has also been proposed for the generation of photocurrent in photogalvanic cell.The photogalvanic cell was subjected to the solar energy in Egypt on summer. A higher photovoltage of 815 mv was obtained. The cell can keep the energy for a longer time. On the recycling using solar energy for seven days using the same cell solution, the same photovoltage and photocurrent was obtained.