How To Make A Solar Cell
13 pages
Published by
bulmaromero
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Make a solar cell in your kitchen
A solar cell is a device for converting
energy from the sun into electricity.
The high-efficiency solar cells you
can buy at Radio Shack and other
stores are made from highly
processed silicon, and...
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Make a solar cell in your kitchen
A solar cell is a device for converting
energy from the sun into electricity.
The high-efficiency solar cells you
can buy at Radio Shack and other
stores are made from highly
processed silicon, and require huge
factories, high temperatures, vacuum
equipment, and lots of money.
If we are willing to sacrifice efficiency
for the ability to make our own solar
cells in the kitchen out of materials
from the neighborhood hardware
store, we can demonstrate a working
solar cell in about an hour.
Our solar cell is made from cuprous oxide instead of silicon.
Cuprous oxide is
one of the first materials known to display the photoelectric effect, in which light
causes electricity to flow in a material.
Thinking about how to explain the photoelectric effect is what led Albert Einstein
to the Nobel prize for physics, and to the theory of relativity.
Materials you will need
The solar cell is made from these materials:
A sheet of copper flashing from the hardware store.
This normally costs about
$5.
00 per square foot.
We will need about half a square foot.
Two alligator clip leads.
A sensitive micro-ammeter that can read currents between 10 and 50
microamperes.
Radio Shack sells small LCD multimeters that will do, but I used
a small surplus meter with a needle.
An electric stove.
My kitchen stove is gas, so I bought a small one-burner electric
hotplate for about $25.
The little 700 watt burners probably won t work -- mine is
1100 watts, so the burner gets red hot.
A large clear plastic bottle off of which you can cut the top.
I used a 2 liter spring
water bottle.
A large mouth glass jar will also work.
Table salt.
We will want a couple tablespoons of salt.
Tap water.
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