cheap do it yourself DIY solar cells from alufoil

[hartiberlin]

Hi All,
did anyone of you already try to make solar cells from
using Alufoil as the back electrode ?

I am looking for a really cheap method how to do
a selfmade homemade solar cell, that everyone can make
at home and can at least achieve 1 to 5 %  efficiency
but with really cheap materials, like
Alufoil, Titandioxid, Graphite and a cheap electrolyte
like in a Graetzel cell.

The question still is, what to use as the front transparent conductive
electrode layer ?

Has anyone read already the patents from Nanosolar.com, what they
are using as a printable transparent front electrode ?

What are the parameters of the p-n area layer between the different materials
that convert sunlight into electricity.
As I understand it, this layer area must be very thin in the micrometer
or nanometer range for efficient electricity generation.

Maybe one who understands the solar theory can
explain it in simple words how the sun?s photon energy
can transfer electrons in  the p-n layer from one
energy potentail layer well to a higher potential and thus
crossing the p-n-layer well barrier.

What dissimular metals could be used to do this
instead of a p-n-layer ?

Also would it be possible just to use some kind
of electroplating some other metals onto alufoil to
achieve this ?

If anybody has worked in this area already, please
post your experience with it.

Imagine being able to build very cheap solar cells
from alufoil you buy cheap at your supermarket
and just paint  them with a mix of titandioxid
and graphite and stick a bit of silverwire ontop of it
and thus get for around 1 US$ a 1 x 1 meter cell
which can output 10 Watts in direct sunlight...

Many thanks.
Regards. Stefan.

[hansvonlieven]

G'day Stefan,

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I have always thought that you cannot electroplate aluminium.

Hans von Lieven

[hartiberlin]

Hi Hans,
yes, Aluminiumfoil builds up a small layer of aluminiumoxid ontop of it,
but Aluminiumfoil could be just used with Titandioxid and graphite maybe.
The question is, what donators have to be implemented to get a right
p-n- layer to extract the photon energy or if just dissimular metals
are enough to get a simular bandgap to convert photons into electricity...

What about using maybe heated Weinsteinacid with Fluorescin
which is a phosphorescent  and stores light energy.
Maybe this could be used additionally to store the light energy or
has the right band gap interval to convert light energy more efficiently ?
Also all the other phosphorescent salts that glow in the dark,
maybe they can be used to convert light energy to electrical energy
in the right setup ?

What about electroplating steel sheets or copper foils with other
materials ?
Did somebody try this yet ?
What must be the right bandgap distance level to convert sunlight photons most
efficiently to electrical energy ?
Is it just about 0.5 ElectronVolts as it is about in silizium solar cells ?

[hansvonlieven]

G'day Stefan

Is this the sort of thing you are looking for?

Us patent application 20060060237    Formation of Solar Cells on Foil Substrates (attached)

alternatively here is another way to make your own solar cells cheaply:

http://www.solideas.com/solrcell/english.html

Greetings
Hans von Lieven

[helmut]

Hi Selvemade Men
This might be interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLSARSw2JUQ&NR=1

and this one to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQJiGsMv07Q&mode=related&search=

helmut