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

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