Finally : cheap DIY selfmade solar cell with common materials !

[ResinRat2]

Res
what are you using for the transparent electrode?

Apperently I do not understand the mechanism. The CIGS cells use copper, indium, gallium, and selenium (or Sulfer) as the combination that is melded. My cell was a Carbon pigment mixed with silver and magnesium colloids, and then spread onto the aluminum sheet. This was baked on a grill to meld the layers. I was under the impression that by shining light on the aluminum side that this would eject electrons into the (silver and magnesium)-doped carbon layer, and by connecting the probes of a volt-meter on each side, that a current would flow.

No current was evident.

So now I see that perhaps I misunderstood. I need to go back and learn more about how solar cells, and the CIGS solar cells work and how they are put together, where the electrodes are connected and what electrodes are composed of.

I thought it was much more simple than it actually is.

If I understand it correctly, I was thinking of using the CIGS combination and replace Copper with Silver, which is in the same Group of the Atomic Table, then replace Indium with an element in the same Group. I was thinking Aluminum, but now I am thinking I need a transparent electrode, which would need to be a transparent glass or plastic with a conductive coating material to act as the front electrode and maybe aluminum as the back electrode.

Gallium, Silver, and Magnesium come as colloides. I was thinking of melding these together on an aluminum sheet by baking at about 200°F , then covering it with a glass that is conductive by painting a very thin silver coating on it, or using the silver colloid baked on it to form the front electrode. This would give me the silver coated glass as the front electrode, and the aluminum as the back electrode.

RR2

[hartiberlin]

Apperently I do not understand the mechanism. The CIGS cells use copper, indium, gallium, and selenium (or Sulfer) as the combination that is melded. My cell was a Carbon pigment mixed with silver and magnesium colloids, and then spread onto the aluminum sheet. This was baked on a grill to meld the layers. I was under the impression that by shining light on the aluminum side that this would eject electrons into the (silver and magnesium)-doped carbon layer, and by connecting the probes of a volt-meter on each side, that a current would flow.

No current was evident.

So now I see that perhaps I misunderstood. I need to go back and learn more about how solar cells, and the CIGS solar cells work and how they are put together, where the electrodes are connected and what electrodes are composed of.

I thought it was much more simple than it actually is.

If I understand it correctly, I was thinking of using the CIGS combination and replace Copper with Silver, which is in the same Group of the Atomic Table, then replace Indium with an element in the same Group. I was thinking Aluminum, but now I am thinking I need a transparent electrode, which would need to be a transparent glass or plastic with a conductive coating material to act as the front electrode and maybe aluminum as the back electrode.

Gallium, Silver, and Magnesium come as colloides. I was thinking of melding these together on an aluminum sheet by baking at about 200°F , then covering it with a glass that is conductive by painting a very thin silver coating on it, or using the silver colloid baked on it to form the front electrode. This would give me the silver coated glass as the front electrode, and the aluminum as the back electrode.

RR2

Hi ResinRat,
you need a transparent electrode and a very thin mikrometer thick P-N semiconductor layer.
In the Graetzel cells the PN-layer is the Indium-Tin-Oxid-electrode and the Tindioxid.
Between those surfaces we have the PN-layer.

The Iodide electrolyte is only to transport the electrons away and the "tea" or "juice" ink is just to
convert the UV light into the visible light to get the cell intothe right optical "working point".

Have again a look at making your own Tinoxid electrodes:

http://www.teralab.co.uk/Experiments/Conductive_Glass/Conductive_Glass_Page1.htm

Also this guy has a method to use a evapouration chamber to coat things with
very small metal surfaces:

http://www.teralab.co.uk/Experiments/Evaporation/Vacuum_Coating.htm

Seems not too complicated, if you have this low pressure equipment.
Look at the paper with a copper layer on it at the bottom of the page...


Well, if you have a colloidal silver pulser you can also coat
things with a small silver coating,
if you let the colloidal silver pulser run for a longer time.
(a few hours)

Then put some oil into the water and the silver particles
will drop out of the water and coat to any surface put into the
water.
At least in one experiment of mine, it had coated the glas walls
of my drinking glas, where I generated the coilladal silver water in...

Maybe if you put some other glas squares in there it will
also coat it ?

Regards, Stefan.

[Doug1]

Res
  I dont feel there is any way to get around the vapor deposited coating for the glass electrode.The material used to make coating is super thin only a couple molecules thick so light can pass onto the active layer on top of the base plate (al) . The conductive material for the glass has to have low melt point and in turn a low vapor point. That way the gas it makes is not so hot that it destroys the glass. Yet hot enough to let the particulates to melt into the glass surface which would be all lower temperatures with plastics. Kind of like making good BBQ slowly cooked so you get some measure of smoke to enter the meat and make a smoke ring. If you ever watch those CSI TV shows they place a cap of crazy glue in a box and let it evaporate in the box.While they let something smolder that emits smoke in the box with the evaporating glue. The glue vapor sticks to finger prints on an object and the smoke sticks to the that and they can lift the prints off all most any surface. If you have some type of conductive material that can be burned into a vapor or gas maybe you can let the vapor enter into a box and use the same trick. You have to replace the finger prints with some sort of coating for the smoke/vapor to stick to. White solder flux might work in the thinnest amount you can manage. it would not be as stable but it might work on the simple and cheap. then leave the silver and magnesium colloids as a wet paste and apply to the back plate electrode placing the glass or plastic on top of the wet mix and let it dry out slow so you dont get air bubbles in between the top transparent piece and the base.

[ResinRat2]

Thanks Stefan, Hydro, Wayne, and Doug1,

I appreciate the comments.

The Low-E glass has an extra coating on it that I really don't want, but the idea of coating the glass with silver to make it conductive is exactly what I am looking for.

I am having a series of glass squares being cut so I can conduct several experiments. I am hoping I won't need to use vapor-depositing to form the transparent electrode because this is beyond the ability of the average person to do. That includes myself. I am also going to try to form a conductive plastic or polymer front electrode as well. This would be the best because having a flexible electrode that wasn't prone to breakage would be ideal.

Dave (RR2)

[Doug1]

Res
  I checked the white type flux paste it does not appear to be conductive. The amber type is not also.
  I was guessing that the white type might have TIo2 in it for the white pigment. Have not tried to cook it down to get it more condensed. cant believe I dont have any crazy glue. Any other day there are tubes of it every where. Some one must have done me a favor and cleaned up. No good deed goes unpunished particularly when it is good for them and not for whom it was intended to be good for. Have you guessed it was a mother inlaw. She wonders why I am moving almost 900 miles away.