Comments on: Solar cells from donuts and tea

By: diy solar panels

diy solar panels — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 04:34:39 +0000

hmm… microamps… Interesting, but this type of solar cell has been around for a while. Considering cost/time/effort/performance it is probably a lot easier to just buy a cheap surplus cell. But perhaps this is useful to motivate the children…

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 01:15:41 +0000

That is really crazy. The video was very informative. I found a great guide that describes how you can make your own panels here… it has videos too

http://www.squidoo.com/Do_it_yourself_solar_panels

By: Solar Energy Guy

Solar Energy Guy — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 04:08:28 +0000

This video is very educated. It’s always interesting to find out how he made that. I need to stop myself from trying to make this thing. What I’m really interesting is how to power air conditioner unit with solar energy? I know it power car, but why not air conditioner unit or my hot water.

By: Solar Cells

Solar Cells — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 09:06:58 +0000

This is a useful article though… And you know, John Rogers, professor of science and materials engineering at the University of Illinois and his team have created a new method to produce flexible solar cells, transparent and extremely thin.

By: Ian

Ian — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 04:52:52 +0000

http://www.unitednuclear.com/chem.htm

They sell Titanium Dioxide for relatively cheap…FYI.

By: anon

anon — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 02:14:07 +0000

hey eric, you’re a douche.

see, i can state the obvious, too.

By: Oren Beck

Oren Beck — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 05:30:17 +0000

Photocopier/high speed scanners tended to use a slightly to moderately conductive coated platen glass if they had ADF or RADF document handlers. As the static charge was wreaking havoc of several sorts. Paper showed “stiction” to the glass and dust was electrostatic field drawn to the glass. Scrapped platen glasses thus could be a not unobtanium source for conductive glass. Same with some “Low E” energy efficient window glasses. Metal Vapor Deposition is edgy for home tech folks but Mirror Silvering is not totally impossible if the chemical hazards are respected.

By: Iv

Iv — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 13:34:33 +0000

@random thoughts : glass is used as an insulator in various high voltage stuff, so I would say that conductive glass is not your common type of glass. What your father witnessed was probably ball lightning, a not-so-rare occurrence of lightning. (5% of US population seems to have witnessed one)

By: random thoughts

random thoughts — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 08:06:44 +0000

conductive glass… I’m thinking all glass must be conductive, at least to some extent. My father tells me a story of how his mother was working in the kitchen when lightning came through the glass window, circled the kitchen and left via another glass window. I know it sounds weird but there ya go.

By: Cheese

Cheese — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 22:20:37 +0000

ah ha! so it -was- fake lens flare. id love to see a demonstration of this in person some day, though i’m not sure where one acquires ‘conductive glass’

By: Blake Farrow

Blake Farrow — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:21:59 +0000

too all the cynics:

this is a very well known method for making solar cells, published as far back as the 70s by Graetzel’s group out of switzerland. The whole donuts and tea thing is just a way of making it a bit more catchy and interesting to the masses. And anything that makes science more catchy and interesting is good, amirite?

fake lens flare was all me… I didn’t think it was very clear that it was a sunny window, so I added it there for kicks. the lens flare button was right beside the lightning one, had to use it. We have much more quantitative results done in solar simulators using much more reliable equipment. An open window is just easier to come by.

By: Cheese

Cheese — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 17:50:14 +0000

Anyone else notice the fake lens flare towards the end? I call shenanigans!

By: danman

danman — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:53:33 +0000

your all a bunch a cynics. sheesh. Good job on the educational video dude!

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:31:34 +0000

Needless to say, you can’t EAT solar cells!

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:29:55 +0000

Really, you aren’t using the donuts at all… Just the powdered sugar. Presumably, any kind of tea- similar to that one, would also work- So you really go from false advertising, to free advertising for a company like Starbucks. Nice science fair project, schmuck.