Photoelectrochemical experiments under various solar light concentration ratios

Abstract
Helioman modules can concentrate solar irradiation up to 10 times and offer the possibility to test within a reasonable experimental time the materials and design of new reactors for the solar plants needed in the treatment of wastewaters. Recently, we have built two photoelectrochemical reactors adapted to a Helioman collector and we have examined their performances under various solar light concentration ratios. The photocurrent-potential dependences measured either under global solar light or in concentrated direct solar light have been found useful for the optimization of photoanode performances, for the choice of reactor materials and improving its design. The amount of electricity deduced from the photocurrents measured during the whole photooxidation process of pollutants provides a valuable insight on the number of OH radicals to be taken into account for the mass balance. All this data gave us the possibility to improve the efficiency of the photoelectrochemical reactors to be used under low irradiation such as provided by the parabolic compound collectors (CPCs) planned to be used in solar plants.