If I put silicon on a copper wire and put it out in the sun will it produce electricity?How exactly does it work and what common materials do I need to make one from scratch?(A permanent one, not one that uses salt water and a burnt copper panel)
I don't think the silicon-copper thing will work. Silicon in solar panels is doped with another material. Besides, silicon (the element) is hard to get ahold of in any quantity. Solar power, of course, means a lot of things, including electricity. For example, solar heating is one form of solar power. If you are trying to just piddle around with the ideas, you might try creating a device that would heat up during the day, causing water to expand and flow across a turbine, and connect the turbine to a small generator. You would be using the solar-heated water to create electricity. If you can actually cause the water to boil a steam turbine would be the result. For direct electrical production, try typing silicon solar disc doping into your browser, and look at some of the websites. Good luck.
No. Solar cells are so expensive because their manufacture is very sophisticated. The silicon is probably built up layer by layer by a vacuum process which ionizes silicon atoms and then sprays them onto a special surface. The silicon is also probably doped with precise amounts of arsenic, gallium and/or germanium. I suppose it's like making a very large computer chip. Besides, silicon panels aren't all that more efficient than copper oxide sheets. No solar device today is over 20% efficient.
I don't think the silicon-copper thing will work. Silicon in solar panels is doped with another material. Besides, silicon (the element) is hard to get ahold of in any quantity. Solar power, of course, means a lot of things, including electricity. For example, solar heating is one form of solar power. If you are trying to just piddle around with the ideas, you might try creating a device that would heat up during the day, causing water to expand and flow across a turbine, and connect the turbine to a small generator. You would be using the solar-heated water to create electricity. If you can actually cause the water to boil a steam turbine would be the result. For direct electrical production, try typing silicon solar disc doping into your browser, and look at some of the websites. Good luck.
No. Solar cells are so expensive because their manufacture is very sophisticated. The silicon is probably built up layer by layer by a vacuum process which ionizes silicon atoms and then sprays them onto a special surface. The silicon is also probably doped with precise amounts of arsenic, gallium and/or germanium. I suppose it's like making a very large computer chip. Besides, silicon panels aren't all that more efficient than copper oxide sheets. No solar device today is over 20% efficient.
