Author(s):
Abha Shukla, Sunidhi Badola and Jyoti Shah
Abstract:
Hydroelectric cell (HEC) is a green energy device known for its potential to replace
solar cell and fuel cell in coming decades. Among number of materials explored, tin oxide-based
cells have shown a huge potential to deliver high current densities with high activation losses. In
this study, to overcome the activation loss, tin oxide-hematite composite based HEC power
characteristics has been analysed. The composite cell delivered a short circuit current density of
Isc ~ 7.0 mA/cm2 and peak power of Pden ~ 26.9 mW. More structural defects were found to nucleate
in the composite compared to pure tin oxide confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman
spectroscopy. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed the high surface area and porous
microstructure of the composite. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) confirmed the
presence of chemi-dissociated and physisorbed water molecules on the composite surface. The
composite based hydroelectric cell displayed low activation losses compared to the bare SnO2
HEC observed by the V-I characteristics. A significant role of Fe3+ cations has been found crucial
for the reduction in activation energy barrier in the composite based HEC.
Pages: 27-35
Read Full Article