PV Gap

Freddie Said:

How does one construct a monocrystalline silicon wafer solar cell from scratch?

We Answered:

basically you need a wafer fab, its not something you can make in your garage. companies spend millions making pure silicon wafers fabs...

but if you want reading material...

Joy Said:

Silicon strip for solar cell?

We Answered:

Just break open few old electronic calculators and take the chip from them if you want more then you better find out in a scientific shop where they sell products for physics labs in schools and universities.

Nathan Said:

what are the differences between nano carbon tubes in solar cell & normal silicon solar cell?

We Answered:

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are allotropes of carbon. A single wall carbon nanotube is a one-atom thick graphene sheet of graphite (called graphene) rolled up into a seamless cylinder with diameter of the order of a nanometer. This results in a nanostructure where the length-to-diameter ratio exceeds 10,000. Such cylindrical carbon molecules have novel properties that make them potentially useful in many applications in nanotechnology, electronics, optics and other fields of materials science. They exhibit extraordinary strength and unique electrical properties, and are efficient conductors of heat. Inorganic nanotubes have also been synthesized.

A solar cell or photovoltaic cell is a device that converts light energy into electrical energy. Sometimes the term solar cell is reserved for devices intended specifically to capture energy from sunlight, while the term photovoltaic cell is used when the light source is unspecified.

Fundamentally, the device needs to fulfill only two functions: photogeneration of charge carriers (electrons and holes) in a light-absorbing material, and separation of the charge carriers to a conductive contact that will transmit the electricity (simply put, carrying electrons off through a metal contact into a wire or other circuit). This conversion is called the photovoltaic effect, and the field of research related to solar cells is known as photovoltaics.

Solar cells have many applications. They have long been used in situations where electrical power from the grid is unavailable, such as in remote area power systems, Earth-orbiting satellites and space probes, consumer systems, e.g. handheld calculators or wrist watches, remote radiotelephones and water pumping applications. More recently, they are starting to be used in assemblies of solar modules (photovoltaic arrays) connected to the electricity grid through an inverter, often in combination with a net metering arrangement...

Marjorie Said:

For a silicon solar cell of 0.025 cm^3 what will be the voltage output at different temperatures?

We Answered:

Where did you get the idea that solar cell voltage was a function of the volume of silicon and temperature?

Although temperature place a small role, nearly all silicon solar cells have an open circuit voltage of approximately 0.5V regardless of the temperature. The maximum current they can produce depends on the area.

0.025 cm^3 (0.25 mm^3)is a very small volume of silicon ... and there is no 'equation' to convert it to voltage based on temperature? To find current, you must convert the volume to an area (knowing the thickness) and use the light intensity and efficiency of the cell.