Silicon might not be the best material to begin with. It is the most popular because  they have spent more time tweeking that one material. It being the most difficult to grow as a single crystal wafer to obtain a higher level of purity has been the solar industries focus.
  The properties of silicone which lead to a reaction favorable to convert light are more important then the silicone itself. High output cells verses low output cells and why.
   I picture there being a 1-2-3 process. High wide dirty light vibration in ,then means to filter vibration to enable to separate layers one diamagnetic one magnetic both translucent and thin and able to become polarized with the electrodes stuck on the outsides. One has to allow some light to pass through the top all the way to back side electrode. Some classes of material dissolve in an alkali some in acids the dye is the filter that knocks the vibration back to a cleaner rate of vibration on the back side compared to the chaotic rate on the front side thereby creating a potential difference front to back. If you cant make a pure crystal and cut into a wafer maybe there is a way to bias a bunch of tiny particles by introducing a range of vibrations to a thin layer of random crystal layer to cancel out part of the light spectrum as it passes to the back electrode. A choke of sorts, but more in line with the way sound canceling works. Does a typical solar cell show that proximity to high frequency disturbances effects the output? I dont have a signal generator maybe just a speaker and win amp will suffice and a cheap solar powered calculator.
  If so then you can use any opposite materials that will satisfy the other requirements of being translucent conductive and either more P or N in nature. If an outside range of frequency will F up a cell maybe the right one will improve it or open up the door to a number of better easier materials that are free.
  As far as giving power back to the grid they can kiss my butt.I would rather send the extra to ground and fry worms or power a foam finger with the extended finger moved to the position of the middle finger tied to a motor to wave at the utility company trucks when they drive by.
   Im thinking zirconium
 

Yes mono seems to be rather nice bot oddly enough manufacturing is making a shift to gretzel cells discussed in this thread because they can be made at a very low cost...

Anyhow I'm glad you brought that up capthook while no one can say weather silicon is the best solution it seems to be at the time but things tend to change drastically and quickly in the renewable energy field.

But I say we follow the course I have some time to go but I will kick off possibly next weekend depending I still need to do some studies with the panel I have made...
More so with the electronics I noticed it was putting out just over 19v peak early morning so high noon it may be more I need to learn ...

My main hurdle now is how to keep a continued voltage of 12v  and regulate it so that the voltage stays the same and either gains current or drops current stepping up and down the voltage automatically...

Just a lot of projects going on currently:
1. Testing my current panel learning how to regulate voltage which should be fairly basic maybe a simple zenner diode would do the trick...
2. Setting up all my PC's to sleep and respond to the WOL packet or WOLWOW packet... so when I wanna transfer files over the network I can wake them then let them fall back into sleep.
3. Setting up Active Home Pro from x10.com so that I can control my power outlets and lights on a timer, remote, or motion sensor.
4. Installing digital programmable thermostat.
5. Working on a camaro top half of the engine.
6. Making a larger solar panel with 3x6 cells still need some materials with that.
7. A full time job that sucks most of my time and life out of me...
8. Then finally yes finally I can do some testing with DIY solar so I am a ways out indeed but I now finally have all of the items required I believe to make a gretzel cell...

Just as a kicker the rest of you should look into home automation all of your devices that remain in a standby state you would be supprised on how much cash you can save on your power bill and still have the same ease of usage it will pay for itself within a year is my estimate and that is probably being less generous then I should be...

Anyhow I will keep tabs on this until I have time to further test. Thanks again for your contributions this is a great thread do not let it fizzel out this is what solar is migrating to this same very cell there is a good reason for it low cost production and decent efficiency ...

Enjoy,

PS please someone help Stephan out with is water soluable silicon salt issue he is making excellent effort and progress!

Paint pigments in general provides a possible avenue for applying materials. It's amazing what pigments are made from and the carriers of the pigments for different types of coatings. From a historical point some pigments are actually pretty cool. There was once some mention of carbon black. I think shoe polish is made from from carbon black in a wax and oil carrier which be something that can be burned off and combined with a very diluted polymer as a binder.
    The patent mentioned in one of the posts the uses a capacitor material as one of the features of the design was a great bummer. Thought I had thought of that first. Regarding pigment materials they do filter out certain wave lengths by reflecting the wavelength which represents the color and absorbing the rest of the wavelengths which result in heat build up in the coating. The carriers have to be super thin and the pigments well dispersed. To much pigment will prevent light from reaching very far into the layer.
   Good thing because some of these materials are expensive. Titatium powder is over 100. us per lbs
 Considering how thin it would have be to be transparent a 1lb would last a life time once oxidized.
  Ever see how they would lift finger prints off an item on the old CSI TV series. They put crazy glue in a box or bag in a container and a small source of fire like a candle or burning paper and the smoke would stick to the finger print. Not sure but I think the vapor from the glue drying caused the smoke to stick to the finger print. Maybe something like that can put to use on this if the finite materials are mixed in with the burning of something in the presence of crazy glue vapors.

Zinc oxide can be made at home in very small amounts.Two zinc plated bolts in a solution of(put in some baking soda) baking soda and water.Run a dc (12 volts or less)current through it
and the white layer that forms on one bolt is zinc oxide.Triffid

 I bagged a wide format printer needs some minor repairs when it gets here but it will make experimenting with the printing of the cells a little more practical. Screen printing Ive done and it makes too much mess. I can hopefully avoid divorce court with a printer and it can earn a little bit of money to pay for itself.
   Pottery suppliers have thinned out around here, left with ordering from NY city. Thats where I got all the zirconium I have left over from another project. I will have to check the cat for the other items. Less expensive then the raw metals from the sound of it.
    I remember a time the solar industry had a write up leading readers to believe they would be producing kits or supplies to produce printed cells from an inkjet printer. That was a long time ago and while they have continued to work with some advancements they appear to be geared only to the commercial production of the cells not to the public having access to it. In retrospect I guess that was stupid on my part to think they were going to start shifting from manufacture to supply and leave the manufacture to the general public. Car wraps could become PV wraps ,roofs could go back to being made of metal and they could be wrapped. Coat the underside of long sheets with peltier dots and use it to not only block the sun but to cool the underside and use the sheets to stop the coastal ice from melting away at the north or south poles. Float a cover over a man made water reseviour to supply a community with the power to run a  pump station and the water itself can be used as a geothermal tank for heating and cooling plus it supplies you with water. You could spend all day thinking of stuff you could use it for and it doesn't have to be all that efficient if the source of the energy is free from the sun. With all the possible uses you would think they be working a little bit harder and a bit faster to perfect this technology. If it was a drug to make you stop sneezing but had the possible side effects of making your winky fall off or leakage from your anus they would have have had it going on in twenty minutes.

zinc oxide is conductive just like tin oxide.Triffid

Is Zinc Oxid only conductive, if it has enough
other substances in it, so if it not very pure ?

I have seen infos, that ZincOxid is mixed with Aluminium
for putting it onto glas for the display industry.

So how do we get the ALuminium into it easily ?

Regards, Stefan.

I modified a picture from HowStuffWorks on the solar cell and threw in the idea of using colloidal minerals in two glass reservoirs that are connected by a copper plate to allow transfer of electrons between the Platinum doped silver colloid layer (P layer) and the Zinc doped Silver colloid layer (N layer).

The trouble with collodal minerals is that they tend to be light sensitive. They would probably not be stable, but the idea just needed to be thrown out there and looking for suggestions. This would ultimately not be very expensive at all to build, and copper wires can be used for the current flow.

Hi everyone,
I am not too sure where this panel thread is, but I may be able to help a little with a couple of points if they are still of interest.

In one of my recent incarnations I was a weaver/spinner and dyer using natural dyes. Here goes.

Plant dyes have binding sites that bind to metallic salts. The different metals can affect the light fastness of the color. Perhaps the titanium itself will work as a lightfast binder.

Tin, chromium and iron were in common use for centuries.

Most natural dyers these days use Alum which is usually potassium aluminum sulphate. An acetate version also works. It is called alum acetate. Perhaps this will be a convenient way to get aluminum into the mix. (I am not sure if the request for aluminum is from a different formula.)

If you do need lightfast dyes the 4 best sources are

madder
indigo species
weld
eucalyptus leaves

madder is a good source for the red dye alizarin
indigo uses a multi step reduction/oxidation process and may not be a good choice here
weld is a good source for the yellow dye luteolin.
eucalyptus leaves when cooked at 185 F for 10 minutes at least make a lightfast dye usually brownish, sometimes red. - smells good too.

Good luck!

jeanna