Print Email Facebook Twitter Electrochemical Oxidation of Organic Pollutants Powered by a Silicon-Based Solar Cell Title Electrochemical Oxidation of Organic Pollutants Powered by a Silicon-Based Solar Cell Author Perez Rodriguez, P. (TU Delft Photovoltaic Materials and Devices) Maqueira Gonzalez, Carlos (Student TU Delft) Doekhi-Bennani, Y. (TU Delft Sanitary Engineering) Rietveld, L.C. (TU Delft Sanitary Engineering) Zeman, M. (TU Delft Electrical Sustainable Energy) Smets, A.H.M. (TU Delft Photovoltaic Materials and Devices) Department Electrical Sustainable Energy Date 2018-10-30 Abstract Currently available (photo-)electrochemical technologies for water treatment establish a trade-off between low-pollutant concentration and costs. This paper aims at decoupling these two variables by designing a photo-oxidation device using earth abundant materials and an electronic-free approach. The proposed device combines a graphite/graphite electrochemical system with a silicon-based solar cell that provides the necessary electrical power. First, the optimum operational voltage for the graphite/graphite electrochemical system was found to be around 1.6 V. That corresponded closely to the voltage produced by an a-Si:H/a-Si:H tandem solar cell of approximately 1.35 V. This configuration was shown to provide the best pollutant degradation in relation to the device area, removing 70% of the initial concentration of phenol and 90% of the methylene blue after 4 h of treatment. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal of these two contaminants after 4 h of treatment was also promising, 55 and 30%, respectively. Moreover, connecting several solar cells in series led to higher pollutant degradation but lower COD removal, suggesting that the degradation of the intermediate components is a limiting factor. This is expected to be due to the higher currents achieved by the series-connected configuration, which would favor other reactions such as polymerization over the degradation of intermediate species. To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:aa71a7dd-eaab-4ab1-96c9-4e65ad19cc81 DOI https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.8b02502 ISSN 0305-0483 Source Omega, 3 (10), 14392-14398 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2018 P. Perez Rodriguez, Carlos Maqueira Gonzalez, Y. Doekhi-Bennani, L.C. Rietveld, M. Zeman, A.H.M. Smets Files PDF acsomega.8b02502.pdf 2.25 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:aa71a7dd-eaab-4ab1-96c9-4e65ad19cc81/datastream/OBJ/view