A Delicious New Solar Cell Technology

Researchers demonstrate a new solar cell technology based entirely on powdered donuts and passion tea.
Please vote on Nanotation Video contest entry here:
http://community.acs.org/nanotation/NanoTubePlayer/tabid/131/VideoId/115/Nano...
Copyright: All Rights Reserved by Blake Farrow

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• fun
• science
• nanotech
• how
• to
• educational
• donut
• passion
• tea
• nanotechnology
• solar
• cells
• do
• it
• yourself
• DIY
• experiment
• titanium
• dioxide
• nanoparticle
• energy
• easy
• sunlight
• renewable
• doughnut

[Riokushinaku]

Hey caudex, I was wondering, I can find Ti02 on ebay in bulk. It is pure Ti02 for very cheap. Would I be able to buy that and use it in the same manner you did here? Also, just that little tiny cell produced .5v? I have seen commercial cells that are about 6'' long and 4'' wide that can only produce .5v. How can this very small piece produce as much as one that is much larger? I really love science and would love to do this at home and make a business off of it to make money.

[caudex43]

@Riokushinaku

Short answer: No. Longer answer: Potential is not area dependent, current is. Multiply area by ten, voltage stays the same while current gets multiplied by 10 (theoretically). This is not an economically viable way to make solar cells, and most definitely not a marketable product. Sorry. Longer answer sent via private message.

[caudex43]

indium doped tin oxide (ITO) glass

[rantingprophet]

would regular powdered sugar work?

like the stuff in the box not the donut

[caudex43]

So long as there is Titanium dioxide listed in the ingredients this method should work to some degree.

We havent tried just regular powdered sugar though, seems likely it would work.

[mibars]

What's the voltage of this cell? :)

[caudex43]

On the order of 0.5V

[duhCider]

As many lead pencils and donuts I ate as a child and as much vodka and Long Island Iced teas ingested as an adult, is it possible my digestive tract is solar powerable?

[donttryit1]

Oh my god. I thought you were kidding about making a solar panel from a doughnut. How amazing.

[PhilipMitchellGraham]

Most face creams have Ti02

Good artist supply shops should have Ti02 in pure powdered form.

[Rjo8976]

How long this will work,

durability of 1 cell...?

[lois228gmail]

When I watch McGyver, it appears he works much faster than this, and he doesn't always have the option of electricity. I remember him sticking electrical wires into two separate pieces of potato to run his clock.

[AnonymousXIII]

lol, love the name... like the experiment too

[JakeXVX]

Where do you get ITO glass? How expensive is it?

[ConnorXV]

@ABEscobia like any (existing) solar panel, basically when a semiconductor absorbs a photon, this will excite a loosely bound electron and cause it to flow and generally they will flow towards another material which has a lack of electrons, this simply draws electrons from further up the circuit to fill in its place causing current to flow, there must be a circtuit or it wont flow. It will charge batteries like any other current source really. did i help answer your queestion?

[ohgeeitsph4rrah]

SO wanna try this! you guys are awesome for doing it. good luck on the acs comp =D

[david18861886]

@caudex43 with a hefty .04amps giving you what .02watts?... :D