Can I make a solar panel with the use of aluminum foil? Please Help me..

[chrissmz5]

Good day! i was wondering if i could use aluminum foil or other materials (aside from silicon/copper) that can be found in my kitchen and are not that expensive?

i really need it badly for my science Quest, a quarterly science fair contest. (i need to win anyway. )

i was reading things about semiconductors and stuff but i cannot understand what they are talking about (like i need silicon crystal with boron and phosphorus etc)...

MY TOPIC IS: a comparative study in energy efficiency so we cannot use copper or silicon because it is expensive here in my country, Philippines.

I hope you guys can help me. Thanks a bunch and merry christmas to all of you.

[monte350c]

Most of the modern solar cell designs do use silicon. It is expensive too since the same material can be used for other high-priced things (like computer chips for example).

If this is for a science fair project and all you want to do is show some electricity from sun, you can make one of these:

http://www.scitoys.com/scitoys/scitoys/echem/echem2.html#solarcell

which makes a very low efficiency cell.

Or you can get some LED's and put them in the sun. They make a very small voltage when sun hits them.

Have fun!

Ted.

[skravlinge]

Some small amount of electric will come from a joint between two wires  of differnt metall if it got hot at the joint.

[Volvo farmer]

Comparing energy efficiency? You could build a solar oven pretty easy with a carboard box, aluminum foil and a piece of glass. It would certainly be more energy efficient than a standard gas or electric oven. You could cook up some delicious food in it and woo all the judges with your culinary skills ;-)

[tecker]

 

   Take your aluminum foil and line the inside of a jar or glass leaving the bottom uncovered . make a cover out of wood or any thing non conductive cut a hole in the middle . Make several copies so you can compare different electrolytes . you some copper wire in the hole make as straight as possible. fill the jar with things like salt water ,lemon juice ,clorox and water ( careful here ) grapes and water and measure the potential . series them up for a battery pack etc. do a general search for electrlytes and graf the posiblities .

There are some interesting deslination posiblities with this setup . Look and tell me what you've found.

[chrissmz5]

alright mr. tecker.. i'll try to do that, it's xmas here so i'll tell mom to save grapes for me.. anyway, how do i test if there's electricity there? i mean, where do i connect it? thanks a bunch! merry xmas to you!

christine

[chrissmz5]

but mr. volvo farmer, we cannot revise anymore our proposal.. thanks for the advise anyway! happy xmas to you and your family!

christine

[chrissmz5]

mr ted.. thanks for the comment. i was planning to do that copper thing but then copper here is kind of expensive too. i will try my best to check on some copper stores for some cheap copper. thanks a bunch anyway mr. ted! you've been a great help! merry xmas to you and your family!

[chrissmz5]

mr. skravlinge.. what kind of metals do i heat? thanks a bunch! happy xmas to all!

[skravlinge]

They have to be of different kind, try what you find. In the school we did it with Zink and Iron, but the teacher told every metal will do, more or less good.

You have alminium, so find something to test together with it. I think you must load up in series to get some volts. A meter will tell it is current even in a single joint.

[juiced]

Try to learn how this is done or just buy the kit. http://www.solideas.com/solrcell/cellkit.html