My home made solar cell step by step

Step 7 Test the cell

test the cell whit Sunlight
A note about power

my cell produces 58 microamps at 0.10 volts.

Don't expect to light light bulbs or charge batteries with this device. It can be used as a light detector or light meter, but it would take acres of them to power your house.

Comments

[Ivraine]

Hey, I've seen this project before in a book in our school library. I believe the original project called for something along the lines of silver nitrate? It said it could produce about 4x the amount of power as yours, but it needed carcinogenic chemicals, high-power acids, and lots of money. Great project though, I liked that you didn't need to make a more complicated solution.

[ki-rou]

sir can i make many of this solar panel and then connect them to each other like a battery? ,, and if i can how many of this solar panel should i make for me to be able to power a small light bulb used for toys?

[Crazy-Inventor]

can you please explain me how does it work.

[alessiof76]

When sunlight hits the electrons in the cuprous oxide, some of the electrons gain enough energy from the sunlight to jump past the bandgap and become free to conduct electricity. The free electrons move into the solution, then into the clean copper plate, into the wire, through the meter, and back to the cuprous oxide plate.

[Crazy-Inventor]

My doubt is how did the cooked copper plate become positive and the other negative terminal. Which is the anode and cathode??

[Crazy-Inventor]

I made this as my Physics experiment and i got full marks. Thank you

[Crazy-Inventor]

Hey Can u plz teel me what size this should this solar pannel should be to light a bulb or to run a R/C car. Thank you....

[alessiof76]

 may be 10 square meters? ;^) too much!
the state of the art is about theorical 20W m^2  for laboratory cell
sorry for my english
Ciao
Alessio

[clemjon]

can i use it as a substitute in solar panel?..if so, how? if not, can you please advice some?

[alessiof76]

 not if it built in that way. University of Trento (itali) built that cell by electrodepositio : 4% of efficiency but is only a prototipe

forgive my bad english

Ciao
Alessio

[phmanzano]

 Hi Alesio,

There is a Grätzel cell project based on chlorophyl you might be interested to join, see www.togethearth.com

[Johnbars]

Hi there my friend. Can this power up a small radio or a walkman device? If not, then how big must it be to power up such small devices? Thanks so much....

[bart416]

Really depends on the way the radio is built. An old fashioned radio, very unlikely. New electronic ones without displays, shouldn't be that much of a problem if you hook up a few.

[alessiof76]

Hi ! I have built different cells with different results may be that with different cells in series you can feed a small radio with headphones, there are Graetz cell that you can do at home. they deliver at least 5 to 10 times more voltage and more current ( power).I have not yet built it, i need conductive glass and titanium dioxide, not easy to find near my home.

[Jaif14]

im not sure if this is true, but i think there is some titanium dioxid in some types of white paint.

[jeffreycb]

what are these cells that deliver 5 to 10 times more voltage? I want to learn about the different other designs. what is "Graetz cell"

[Johnbars]

Thanks!!! This is great info for me!.....more power to you!

[alessiof76]

If I find the material I will try to build even a more powerful Graetz cell