Combining Energy Conversion and Storage: A Solar Powered Supercapacitor

Narayanan, R and P, Naresh Kumar and M, Deepa and Srivastava, A K (2015) Combining Energy Conversion and Storage: A Solar Powered Supercapacitor. Electrochimica Acta, 178. pp. 113-126. ISSN 0013-4686

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Abstract

A solar powered supercapacitor wherein a plasmonic quantum dot solar cell (QDSC) sources the photocurrent for charging/discharging a conjoined supercapacitor based on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) is demonstrated. Gold or Au fibers are integrated into a titanium dioxide/cadmium sulfide (TiO2/CdS) electrode to yield a TiO2/CdS/Au photoanode. The plasmonic effect of Au fibers is reflected in the higher incident photon to current conversion efficiency (IPCE = 55%) and an improved overall power conversion efficiency (3.45%) produced by the TiO2/CdS/Au photoanode relative to the non-plasmonic TiO2/CdS photoanode. A Janus type bi-functional electrode composed of MWCNTs on either face separated by glass is prepared and it is coupled with the TiO2/CdS/Au electrode and another MWCNT electrode to yield the tandem solar powered supercapacitor. By channelling the photocurrent produced by the QDSC part, under 0.1 sun illumination, the capacitance of the symmetric supercapacitor, without the application of any external bias is 150 F g−1 which compares well with reported values of electrically powered MWCNT supercapacitors. Our innovative design for a photo-supercapacitor offers a new paradigm for combining low cost photovoltaics with energy storage to yield a technologically useful device that needs nothing else other than solar energy to run.

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IITH Creators:

IITH Creators	ORCiD
M, Deepa	UNSPECIFIED

Item Type:

Article

Additional Information:

XRD patterns of TiO2 and CdS, XPS spectral analysis of Au fibers, emission spectral analysis of films, KPFM calculations, cyclic voltammogram of the S2− gel, details of photeolectrochemical reactions, I-V plots for Au fibers and Au NPs, J-V characteristics of CdS/Au- and TiO2/CdS/Au NPs- photoanodes, a SEM image of MWCNTs, and the equivalent circuit for the photo-supercapacitor.

Uncontrolled Keywords:

quantum dot; plasmonic; supercapacitor; solar cell; photo-supercapacitor

Subjects:

Chemistry

Divisions:

Department of Chemistry

Depositing User:

Team Library

Date Deposited:

01 Sep 2015 09:44

Last Modified:

18 Oct 2017 07:15