Natural Chlorophyll-Sensitized Nanocrystalline TiO₂ as Photoanode of a Hybrid Photoelectrochemical Biofuel Cell

Abstract

A photoelectrochemical biofuel cell (PEBFC) generating electrical energy directly from sunlight and biomass was investigated. In this paper, the PEBFC had a natural chlorophyll-sensitized titanium dioxide (TiO2) film photoanode and Pt black cathode. The electron transport process of the PEBFC was described. The performances of the PEBFC were obtained by photocurrent-photovoltage characteristic curves. The open-circuit photovoltage (Voc), the short-circuit photocurrent (Isc) and the maximum power density (Pmax) is 0.53V, 1.000 μAcm-2 and1.1520 μWcm-2 at 0.37 V, respectively. The incident photo-to-current efficiency (IPCE) is 8.4% at 380 nm.