Here are an easy set of instructions about making solar cells which were originally posted on Science Toys. They teach us how to make a flat solar panel that generates solar power at home in 7 easy steps.
Materials You Will Need:
Refer to the photo above for visuals.
Step 1
Create a cuprous oxide copper plate (shown here in 5 easy steps). It takes about an hour to make it in your kitchen.
Step 2
Take the cuprous oxide copper plate and completely sand one corner clean all the way down to the shiny copper, and solder an insulated copper wire to it for the negative lead.
In the photo above you can see the flat panel solar cell in action in the bright sun. It is delivering about 36 microamperes of current. You can also see the extra bead of glue around the edges of the plates, and filling the top of the funnel.
This device certainly wont fulfill your home’s power needs, but it’ll give you a basic training before you go on to make bigger projects in the future.
Please visit Science Toys to see other cool instructions, or check out this post to learn how to make another type of solar cell at your home.
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Materials You Will Need:
- A transparent plastic sheet to form a frame/window
- Silicone rubber glue
- A sheet of copper flashing from the hardware store. This normally costs about $5.00 per square foot. You will need about half a square foot.
- Two alligator clip leads.
- A sensitive micro-ammeter that can read currents between 10 and 50 microamperes. Small LCD multimeters will do too.
- Table salt, around 2 tablespoons of it.
- Tap water.
- Sheet metal shears for cutting the copper sheet.
Step 1
Create a cuprous oxide copper plate (shown here in 5 easy steps). It takes about an hour to make it in your kitchen.
Step 2
Take the cuprous oxide copper plate and completely sand one corner clean all the way down to the shiny copper, and solder an insulated copper wire to it for the negative lead.
Step 3
Cut out a U shaped plate from the copper sheet, a little bit larger than the cuprous oxide plate, with the cutout portion of the U a little bit smaller than the cuprous oxide plate. Another insulated copper wire is soldered to one corner of the U. This is the positive plate.
Step 4
Glue the U shaped copper plate to the plastic window. Use plenty of silicone glue. Make sure that the solder connection is either completely covered with glue, or is outside of the glue U, as shown in the photo (completely covered in glue is best). The photo below shows the back side of the solar cell (the side not facing the sun) at this point in the construction.
The photo below shows the front side of the solar cell (the side that will face the sun) at this point in the construction. Notice that the silicone glue does not completely cover the copper, since some of the copper must eventually be in contact with the saltwater.
Step 5
The next step is to lay a good size bead of glue onto the U shaped clean copper plate. This layer will act as an insulator between the clean copper plate and the cuprous oxide plate, and must be thick enough to leave some room for the saltwater. Again, not all of the copper is covered, so there will be plenty of copper in contact with the saltwater.
Step 6
Gently press the cuprous oxide plate onto this layer of glue. You should press hard enough to make sure the glue seals off any gaps, but not so hard that the two plates touch. The photo below shows the back side of the solar cell (the side not facing the sun) at this point in the construction.
The photo below shows the front side of the solar cell (the side that will face the sun) at this point in the construction. Note that I added extra glue to form a funnel at the top to allow the saltwater to be added.
Not shown in the photo is a generous extra bead of glue all around the outside of the plates, to ensure that no saltwater will leak out. Allow the glue to cure before going on to the next step.
Step 7
Next, use a large eyedropper to add the saltwater. Fill the cell up almost to the top of the copper plate, so it almost spills out. Then seal the funnel with another generous bead of glue, and allow the glue to cure at least a half hour.
This device certainly wont fulfill your home’s power needs, but it’ll give you a basic training before you go on to make bigger projects in the future.
Please visit Science Toys to see other cool instructions, or check out this post to learn how to make another type of solar cell at your home.
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