Photoelectrochemical reaction in conducting polymers for solar energy harvesting and charge storage

Abstract

Energy storage is an essential ground for solar energy systems, particularly for the off-grid applications. Concurrent energy harvesting and charge storage in a photoactive supercapacitor has already been demonstrated. The key element in such a device is a conducting polymer which stores the charge via change in its redox states. In this work, we have studied the photoelectrochemical reactions in composites of polyaniline (PANI). We used the electrochemical deposition method for the polymer growth. The results of the current study indicate that the photo-reactivity of the materials largely depends on the electrolyte and the type of the dye molecule. Among different synthetic dyes, methylene blue has shown the strongest photoelectrochemical reaction in an HCl electrolyte. The cyclic voltammetry (CV) results showed that the amplitude of the redox peaks changes significantly upon illumination. The amount of stored charges in the polymer was estimated from the CV results. The results encourage the application of PANI for charge storage in a photoactive supercapacitor.