Study of Nitrogen Fixation with Artificial Photosynthesis by Employing Tandem of TiO2 Nanotube/N719 Dyes Solar Cell and Ti3+/TiO2 Nanotube Electrode in Catalytic Zone Ni Wayan Yuningrat 1,*, Muhammad Refaldhie Ariansyah1, Rahmat Wibowo 1, and Jarnuzi Gunlazuardi 1
University of Indonesia
Abstract
The ammonia production using the photocatalytic of TiO2 reduced was low and needed a long operation. This research used a tandem system between the TiO2 nanotubeN719 dyesensitized solar cell and the Ti3TiO2 electrodes in the photoelectrochemical zone. The TiO2 nanotubeN719 was synthesized by anodizing the Ti foil in the ethylene glycol electrolyte consisting of 0.3%(ww) NH4F and 2%(ww) H2O at 40 V for 45 minutes and then immersed in the 0.3 mM N719 dye solution for 24 hours. The fabricated sandwich of TiO2 nanotubeN719 and FTOPt was filled with II3 electrolyte in acetylacetone. The Ti3TiO2 was synthesized by electrochemical reduction at 1.5 V in 0.1 M Na2SO4 electrolyte for 20 and 50 minutes. The 0.6 mLmin of nitrogen gas was injected into the reactor during 12 hours of irradiation. The production of ammonia was dissolved in 0.01 M HCl and analyzed by the phenate method. The research result reveals that the Ti3TiO2 nanotube 20 minutes has a bandgap energy of 3.05 eV and Urbach energy of 1.12 eV, which absorbs visible light more effectively than the other TiO2 nanotube reduced. In addition, its photocurrent density increased by 0.027 mikroAcm2. The tandem system produces 48.7 mikroM ammonia and reaches 0.09% efficiency.
