Storing Cookies (See : http://ec.europa.eu/ipg/basics/legal/cookies/index_en.htm ) help us to bring you our services at overunity.com . If you use this website and our services you declare yourself okay with using cookies .More Infos here:
https://overunity.com/5553/privacy-policy/
If you do not agree with storing cookies, please LEAVE this website now. From the 25th of May 2018, every existing user has to accept the GDPR agreement at first login. If a user is unwilling to accept the GDPR, he should email us and request to erase his account. Many thanks for your understanding

User Menu

Custom Search

Author Topic: Artificial Leaf DIY selfmade very cheap solar cell  (Read 69939 times)

hartiberlin

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8154
    • free energy research OverUnity.com
Artificial Leaf DIY selfmade very cheap solar cell
« on: October 19, 2009, 09:33:40 PM »
Here is another breakthrough technology for maling your own cheap solar cell.

Watch :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ6XqEsutcM

He uses barley gras extract ( probably barley gras powder) mixed with
epoxy glue and carbon fibers and glues this onto an aluminium foil
with a copper wire just touching the carbon fibers.
He still has a second layer alufoil with a paper isolated between this.

So it seems he just built a paper-alufoil capacitor, where one
foil-"plate" was additionally charged by sunlight.


He gets over 0.420 Volts out of this cell.

He writes in the video comments:

This is a solar cell made out of inexpensive materials. this video explains how to make a solar cell from 2 pieces of aluminum, a piece of paper, some 5 minute epoxy, carbon fiber and barley grass extract (i sh!t you not). I was reading about the photo electric effect. Plants use this to split water and make sugars. I figure: if I just mix the chlorophyll with epoxy and carbon, it should form a photoelectric layer. in fact this cell performs much better than I expected. Pulling half a volt from my desk light, it does better than a satellite grade cell i have in my junk box, which will only pull 200 mills, 500 in sun. Patent pending.


I don't have good enough equipment to reliably test current output. I need a new fluke. Yes, It needs it push current to be useful. This device is a capacitor with one side coated with a photoelectric material (chlorophyll). Adding a diode, or grounding one side greatly effects the rate at which voltage builds. My main point is that cells need not be silicon, or even silicon oxide, though i think CDS cells (on glass) are amazing. I am currently working on grant for conventional solar cells + CSP

Then he wrote me via email:

 Re: Regarding artificial leaf solar cell
There is no water in the cell, there is 0 voltage with no light, otherwise i would not have posted. the cell consists of epoxy mixed with chlorophyll (actually barley extract, glued to one side of a paper capacitor (other side recieves no light.) Chlorophyll functions in plants by converting photons to electrons, powering the plant. My voltmeter does not work for amperage, but I will let you know at some point, I managed to save the cell so I can still do some testing on it. I never posted it but I made a single cell that made three volts using a similar concept making the capacitor around a glass bottle (there are photo electric compounds which can be added to the water to adsorb light, creating an electrostatic charge in the fluid , this too would show zero voltage in no light. I have worked with conventional photovoltaics so I know what they look like under a voltmeter (.5v), no galvanic effect. What made it work was the addition of chopped carbon fiber strand to form a conductive net in the chlorophyll layer..other chemicals are known to work besides chlorophyll


============

So far all the infos I have about it.

Regards, Stefan.

triffid

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4263
Re: Artificial Leaf DIY selfmade very cheap solar cell
« Reply #1 on: October 20, 2009, 10:36:48 PM »
You can extract all the chlorophyll you want out of a leaf by gently boiling it in rubbing alcohol from
the supermarket.Be careful or you can get burned.The alcohol can catch fire but if you are careful you can do it like in a glass coffee pot.Let the mixture evaporate over 2 or three days to get the powder(chlorophyll).As far as I know this method of extraction does not harm the chlorophyll.Triffid

triffid

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4263
Re: Artificial Leaf DIY selfmade very cheap solar cell
« Reply #2 on: October 20, 2009, 10:45:30 PM »
I did this one summer day at my dads house in the 1960's and surprised my grandma.It turned a beautiful green.I was about 15.Triffid

triffid

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4263
Re: Artificial Leaf DIY selfmade very cheap solar cell
« Reply #3 on: October 20, 2009, 10:47:31 PM »
I would try elmers glue mixed with powdered chlorophyll.The elmers glue drys clear.Triffid

triffid

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4263
Re: Artificial Leaf DIY selfmade very cheap solar cell
« Reply #4 on: October 20, 2009, 10:49:44 PM »
Since the carbon fibers are used to make it (the layer) conductive.One might use a small amount of zinc oxide,or tin oxide or maybe a pinch of graphite? Not enough mind you,to block the sunlight. Just throwing out some low cost solutions here.Triffid

hartiberlin

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8154
    • free energy research OverUnity.com
Re: Artificial Leaf DIY selfmade very cheap solar cell
« Reply #5 on: October 20, 2009, 11:04:23 PM »
@triffid,
nice ideas.
Does the alcohol cooking method really work to extract the chlorophyll without damaging
it ?
Normally the rubbing alcohol from the supermarkets are made non-drinkable with bad additional chemicals,
so maybe it is better to use isopropyl alcohol from the pharmacy or drug store ?

What about extraction of the really beautiful color of green moss ?
How could this be done ?

I always love green moss, when I go walking in the woods.

Regards, Stefan.

hartiberlin

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8154
    • free energy research OverUnity.com
Re: Artificial Leaf DIY selfmade very cheap solar cell
« Reply #6 on: October 20, 2009, 11:27:42 PM »
Here is another guy experimenting with "solar-capacitors" to capture sunlight
in selfmade solarcells .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZy_e7uRZ2Q

jadaro2600

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1257
Re: Artificial Leaf DIY selfmade very cheap solar cell
« Reply #7 on: October 21, 2009, 03:37:07 AM »
perhaps a high proof grain alcohol would work.

..I think that setting the whole thing in clear epoxy would work fine.

 You can obtain filament carbon fiber from some online retailers, i recently got some as a ribbon variety ( many tiny strands in a band ), http://www.acp-composites.com/home.php?cat=251 it comes unraveled quite easily and it conducts electricity.  The problem is getting the the whole thing to remain a circuit while the epoxy sets.
But why chlorophyll? ..why not a different dye / pigment instead?


onthecuttingedge2005

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1336
Re: Artificial Leaf DIY selfmade very cheap solar cell
« Reply #8 on: October 21, 2009, 04:22:23 AM »
Like I have been preaching, use LASER dyes, Stimulated emissions of radiation can multiply photon counts and increase efficiencies in a solar cell.

Jerry 8)

triffid

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4263
Re: Artificial Leaf DIY selfmade very cheap solar cell
« Reply #9 on: October 21, 2009, 04:19:19 PM »
As far as I know"gentle boiling" with rubbing alcohol(30% water and 70% isopropyl) does not damage the chlorophyll.I don't know what the use of grain alcohol (ethyl) would result in.There are  at least two types of chlorophyll,chlorophyll "A" and chlorophyll "B".My "gentle boiling" with rubbing alcohol does not separate them.The atomic structure of the two alcohols are different.So I would stick with rubbing alcohol and again the key words here are"gentle boiling".Drugstore rubbing alcohol is what I would use.Don't inhale the fumes.triffid

triffid

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4263
Re: Artificial Leaf DIY selfmade very cheap solar cell
« Reply #10 on: October 21, 2009, 04:26:48 PM »
If you use chlorophyll as your dye of choice you can always get it from your grass clippings or your neighbors.I have used elmers glue in making copper oxide cells back in the early 1990's.I also used rusted wire window screen as a collector.New window screen has a plastic coating which must be burned off with a match if you want it to be conductive.Triffid

MasterPlaster

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 530
Re: Artificial Leaf DIY selfmade very cheap solar cell
« Reply #11 on: October 21, 2009, 05:43:28 PM »
I suggest first put you fresh grass cutting in a blender and turn it in to a paste.
Secondly, the whole point of using alcohol is that it is a solvant and boils at a low temperature.
You best make yourself a distill and ensure the vaporized alcohol does not catch fire. therefore, use an electric hub for this purpose as there are no flames.
Further, if you cool the vaporized fumes, you end up with alcohol again so, you will cut your costs of extraction.

I think the reason you want a low boiling point medium is so that you do not destroy the substance you are trying to extract.

Having said all that, I cant see why algee can not be grown between sanwiched sheets of glass. Where I live, the normal tap water starts going green after a week when kept in a bottle.

triffid

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4263
Re: Artificial Leaf DIY selfmade very cheap solar cell
« Reply #12 on: October 22, 2009, 05:10:28 PM »
I used tree leaves to show my grandma at the time.Still moss or whatever is green and has chlorophyll in it.I guess its overcooked if it turns brown or black on you.Good idea on recapturing the alcohol.triffid

jadaro2600

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1257
Re: Artificial Leaf DIY selfmade very cheap solar cell
« Reply #13 on: October 24, 2009, 02:47:40 AM »
although his results are interesting, the net yield seems low; the idea is that it be useful though.  In practice wouldn't it be better to assume that what he's created is more like a thermojunction than  solar cell; even though that's what most solar cells are.

Wouldn't the requirements for a true solar capacitor be something along the lines of a NONconductive path between the plates?  I don't know many capacitor that conduct across the plates - this would truly be a marvel.

triffid

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4263
Re: Artificial Leaf DIY selfmade very cheap solar cell
« Reply #14 on: October 25, 2009, 05:00:24 PM »
forget the blender the alcohol will take the chlorophyll out through the cell walls.Triffid