Study On Dye-sensitized Photocell Coupled System Of Hydrogen Generation From Water

Awareness of the disastrous consequences of environmental pollution and climate change is growing rapidly. Solar energy driven water splitting is the most promising alternative for the fuel of the future. One of the most promising methods of obtaining hydrogen is by using solar energy from photovoltaic-based electrolysis. A research focused on harvesting solar energy to produce hydrogen by using dye-sensitized solar cell was studied in the paper. We prepared the nano-TiO₂ thin film photo-electrodes by the methods of sol-gel and sol-gel plus powder, comparing the photoelectric performances of DSC made from two methods. We choosed the DSC made from sol-gel plus powder as photoelectric unit of water spiltting. The Pt counter-electrode was prepared by the method of electroplating, decomposing the Pt on the base of FTO glass. And we test many pigments as sensitized dye, the Bromeosin Y was selected as sensitizers finally.The main influencing factors of TiO₂ electrode such as the molecular weight of PEG(Polyethylene glycol), coating times and annealing temperature were detailed studied. The microstructure of titania films could be modulated by the molecular weight of PEG,coating times and treating temperature. Based on such preparation technics, we obtained the optimized solar cell(area:5mm×5mm)with photo-voltage 0.628V,photo-current density 1.15mA/cm², fill factor 0.425, peak power 0.307mW/cm² and photoelectric conversion efficiency 0.42%.It needs much less energy to electrolyze water by dye sensitized photocell than the traditional photo-electrolysis cells, and solves the corrosion problem of electrode in electrolytic cell because the whole solar power system is in the air. We used three serial dye sensitized solar cells as energy sources, making the open circuit voltage of 1.547V, which showed the feasibility of hydrogen generation from water by dye-sensitized solar cell.