Artificial Leaf DIY selfmade very cheap solar cell

[hartiberlin]

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]

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]

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]

I would try elmers glue mixed with powdered chlorophyll.The elmers glue drys clear.Triffid

[triffid]

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