A CdS catalyzed photosynthetic photoelectrochemical cell

✍ Scribed by I-JI Fan; R.L. Pan; E.L. Gross

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1982
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 761 KB
• Volume: 27
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0013-4686
• DOI: 10.1016/0013-4686(82)80138-2

✦ Synopsis

A photosynthetic photoelectrofhemical cell has been developed ([18] Gross, Youngman and Winemiller, Photo&em Photobioi. 28, 249-256, 1978) using a semiconductor, CdS, as a photocatalyst to generate electricity directly from solar energy. The photopotential generated was the sum of two photochemical reactions; ie the photosynthetic reaction and a CdS catalyzed heterogeneous photochemical reaction. Both biological components and CdS undergo photoinduced charge separation which results in a photochemical potential for thedevelopment ofelectricity. Various features of this photoelectrochemical cell were under investigation. The maximum power conversion efficiency of 0.15 % was obtained under light intensity of 90 W m-*. Several light-dark cycles were observed which implies that this cell can store energy in the form of chemical potential. A model mechanism of this photosynthetic photoclectrochemical cell was proposed. ABBREVIATIONS. AM 1.0 = AM stands for air mass, AM 1.0 refers to the sunlight at the earth's surface on a bright clear day with the sun at the zenith * On leave from The Laboratory of Photocatalysis, Shanghai Teacher's College, Shanghai, The People's Republic of China.