How to Make a Copper Solar Panel

A solar panel is an interconnected assembly of photovoltaic cells also called solar cells. A solar cell made from processed silicon is a highly efficient device that converts sunlight to electricity. It requires huge factories, labor, high temperature, expertise and cannot be constructed at home. However, if you are ready to compromise on its efficiency, a copper-based solar cell is an option. It can be easily constructed at home from the material available at your local hardware and electronic shops.

Things You'll Need

• Copper plates (half a square foot)
• Iron brush or sand paper
• Electric burner
• Micro ammeter
• Alligator clips
• Salt
• Water
• 2-liter bottle, with the top half cut off

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Instructions

• 1

  Take a copper sheet and cut a piece about the size of electric burner. Wash your hands to remove oil or grease. Use cleanser or soda to remove oil or grease from the copper plate. Rub the surface of the copper sheet using a sandpaper or an iron brush to remove any corrosion or sulfides.

• 2

  Put the dried and clean sheet on the electric burner with its maximum heat. You will see oxidation pattern of different colors on the sheet. Allow the plate to cook for half an hour so that a thick black coating of cupric oxide is formed on the surface. Make sure to allow the formation of thick black coating of cupric oxide on the plate otherwise it will stick and spoil our purpose.

• 3

  Turn off the electric burner and allow the plate to cool slowly for half an hour. Do not cool it quickly as this will stick cupric oxide on the surface and destroys our purpose. As the plate gets cooled, it shrinks along with black cupric oxide, but at different rates.

• 4

  Scrub the plate's surface under running water to remove black oxide after it cools. Be gentle in scrubbing otherwise you will destroy the red cuprous oxide layer required for the construction of solar cell.

• 5

  Cut another piece of copper to the same dimensions and bend both of them so that they can be placed into the bottom half of the plastic bottle, parallel to each other. Do not allow any contact between the plates.

• 6

  Take a micro ammeter and attach its positive terminal to the new copper plate using an alligator clip. Attach the negative terminal to the cuprous oxide plate.

• 7

  Mix two tablespoon salt into hot water and stair it until the salt is completely dissolved. Carefully pour the salt water into the bottle to expose some part of the plates to the mixture. Make sure that clip leads do not become wet. Leave an inch above the water for direct exposure to sunlight.

• 8

  Expose the cell to sunlight. You will see the indication of current in the micro ammeter. Now you can charge a battery from the cell, or can directly light a bulb.