Clean Energy Generation by a Nanostructured Biophotofuel Cell

In this paper, clean energy generation from hazardous materials by a nanostructured biophotofuel cell was studied. Specifically, electrodeposition of polyaniline on TiO₂ nanotube as photoelectrochemical anode for a sodium sulfide fuel cell was performed. The photoelectrochemical response of the TiO₂ nanotube capped by polyaniline nanoparticles was studied in UV and visible light illumination using sodium sulfide as the electrolyte. The polyaniline was added onto the top end of the nanotube via electrochemical deposition from 0.1 M aniline (C₆H₇N) in 1 M HCl solution. Polyaniline nanoparticle/TiO₂ nanotube was made into an anode and put into 0.5 M sodium sulfide solution for photoelectrochemical response tests under both visible and ultraviolet light irradiation. The photoelectrochemical anode shows good photo-catalytic property, as evidenced by the open circuit potential changes when the illumination conditions were changed. Its response to ultraviolet light is much stronger than to visible light. It is also found that the higher the temperature of the sodium sulfide solution, the weaker the photo-catalytic response of the anode.