Your research and documentation is fantastic. I have many things to try now. Thank you!

Thanks for being a simplifier... people used to be addicted through money into complication and limitation not being aware of what they trully realize know or not...i also make various solar panels and electrical tech and weird uses of electricity

Thank you so much. You are the best.

I am making almost the same solar cells (love CuO) using a homemade sputtering chamber. CuO is a terrible conductor, so what I am thinking is interleaving layers of ZnO with CuO to increase the performance.

@L29Ah

4 жыл бұрын

how are your results?

Super! Thank you very much!

Hello, I have a electroplated bath on at the moment at 2.8v and 30ma. Should I keep it running for 3 hours or so. I did have a plan and used scholarly papers but I've managed to lose them and cannot find the optimum time for the bath. Thank you very much any help is greatly appreciated

Semi unrelated question, does the plated glass take solder? It seems like it would. If you've tested it, how is the adhesion? Does it detach?

excuse me what is the black pasta put on the last step?

How long does it require for the electrodeposition process?

I just wanted to say that I love your website and the videos that you have produced! What would you say the cost would be per cell produced in this manner? Or in general a price for all of the materials you purchased? (Not including beakers, hot plate, meters)

@Simplifier0

6 жыл бұрын

Hard to say, since I ended up buying quite a few things that I didn't end up using in the final design, and experimentation tends to be a lot more expensive than production due to waste, etc. In general though the materials are pretty cheap; you could probably get started for $100, equipment aside. Cost per cell would end up pretty low if you made enough of them, since thin-film cells use very little material by nature. My guess for the lower limit would be twice the cost of the glass you start with, and that's mostly due to the stannous chloride.

@TurkishLoserInc

6 жыл бұрын

Surprisingly affordable! My offer for a nicer vacuum pump still stands, along with any machining you may need. Let me know if you need something made from metal, I've got a full machine shop now, if you cover shipping+materials, I can make you stuff for free.

@Simplifier0

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the offer, but I enjoy machining too much to outsource it to someone else. That was honestly the hardest part of working on this project--no precision parts!

@TurkishLoserInc

6 жыл бұрын

Ah, same here! Keeping precision parts out of the equation keeps it accessible to all sorts of hobbiests/scientists, which is great! Thank you so much for your contributions!

I intend on making a solar panel from multiple of these cells in a similar process. I want to make 40 cells using this process, and use a combination of parallel and series connections so that I can raise the voltage to 5v and the amps to 0.7A, thus I can connect a phone charger to the output. When connecting each cell together via series or parallel what would be the best method to do so, should I use aluminum like in the commercial solar panels (mono/poly)? Do you think this is doable? (im an engineering student and this is going to be interlinked with my college) Great work I appreciate the video, I was about to make a dye-sensitized solar cell as wasnt too happy about the outputs of the amps when making them.

@RiSkMoDz

4 жыл бұрын

Each cell will be 5cm^2.

@Simplifier0

4 жыл бұрын

These cells work best with some pressure on the contacts, so I would suggest some sort of frame which presses soft conductive pads (graphite or lead foil) against each cell. These could then be linked in series or parallel by whatever method is most convenient for you. I will warn you, however, that these cells do have problems with moisture-related degradation, particularly due to the alkaline conductive paste. Encapsulation might help, but this is still very much a prototype design, and a more stable absorber (to replace Cu2O) is likely necessary for this to be a useful type of solar cell. Good luck though, let me know how it goes.

@RiSkMoDz

4 жыл бұрын

@@Simplifier0 Thank you very much for your reply! I will take into account all of these steps when making the solar cells, I will try to find something more stable than the Cu2O. I have slightly changed my mind about manufacturing the conductive glass myself. This is due to the resources from the university and to eliminate human error. If I were to use ITO glass, could I still use this method? If so would I not have to add any n-type sprays, im concerned that the ITO has one layer (from my knowledge) of n-type and I would have to add a second n-type semiconductor, I've researched online the process of ITOs and can't seem to find anything accurate so far. Is ITO glass the equivalent of the glass you used with the SnO2 layer, so I would still be required to add another layer (ZnO)? Then, I could follow the rest of the processes, add the same P-type layers... I will be referencing your method in my report and using your results as a baseline for what im heading for. If I get similar results I should be able to use 70cm^2 x 9 and all in parallel to achieve 5v and 0.5A. I will be doing computer-aided designs and simulations too and hopefully, it all works out accordingly! Thanks!

@RiSkMoDz

4 жыл бұрын

My project is to ultimately to compare the commercial solar cells and homemade solar cells, the efficiency, and to produce a solar panel myself. So it would not actually be used outside for long periods of time. I need to also explain all of the processes in detail; the manufacturing of the most popular solar cells ect. Im new to this so it's a learning curve, excuse me for my lack of knowledge.

@Simplifier0

4 жыл бұрын

@@RiSkMoDz I've actually never tried using ITO glass, but my earliest cells used commercial AZO glass (aluminum-doped zinc oxide) and it worked well, albeit with a lower open-circuit voltage. If your university has that available, you can probably replicate my first article pretty easily (Cu2O on AZO, no further treatment). I know for certain that FTO glass will not work by itself, however; it behaves strictly as a conductor. If ITO turns out to be the same, you would have to add a layer of pure or Mg-doped ZnO. One thing to note though is if you plan to make a very large cell, try to keep the conductive path across the glass as short as possible, i.e. make the cell very short and wide. The resistance of the glass is a significant bottleneck when the cell is under load. If you're trying to do research, I definitely recommend Google Scholar; especially since you probably have journal access through your university. Beware though, the amount of data out there relating to thin film solar cells is massive, and not all of it is accurate or repeatable.

how to achieve 500 °C for spraying process?

Nice Video, how long do you think the cell could last roughly??

@Simplifier0

6 жыл бұрын

Depends on the application. As a light sensor, where it's only exposed to sunlight intermittently, I've found them to last indefinitely. Under constant exposure, however, they degrade to about 10% of their original power output in about a week. I'm not sure of the exact mechanism, but if it's moisture-related then it could possibly be resolved by encapsulation. If it's UV damage, or some solid-state interaction between the layers of the cell, then it's probably unavoidable. Sometime in the future I'll do more work with solar cells to see if I can resolve this.

@Glucoperon

6 жыл бұрын

I have been working with copper I oxide as a photocatalyst and found it breaks down in exposure to water and UV.

Cu2O + TiO2 ?

Hi,what is the ash colored liquid,please any one share me?

@Simplifier0

4 жыл бұрын

You should probably read the article linked in the video description.

@kajarikar5097

4 жыл бұрын

@@Simplifier0 Thanks,I got it and complete the total needy composition.