NurdRage - 2010-09-11
In this video we show how to make a dye sensitized solar cell based on titanium dioxide and anthocyanin found in raspberries. First get some titanium dioxide (anatase structure), about 0.5g will do. Then mix it with drops of vinegar until it has the consistency of thin paint or liquid corrector fluid. Add a drop of dishwashing detergent. This is to make it stick to the glass. Now get a piece of indium tin oxide glass. The indium tin oxide glass was purchased from delta technologies http://www.delta-technologies.com/ using a multimeter set to measure resistance, find the conductive side by measuring the resistance of the glass. The side that's conductive will have a much lower resistance than the non-conductive side. Tape the glass on three sides onto a flat surface, conductive side up. there should be able 5mm of tape on each edge. The tape will serve as a spacer guide for the titanium dioxide. Now using a glass rod, apply the titanium dioxide paint to the conductive of the indium tin oxide glass. Slide the rod across the tape so that it smears the paint evenly and smoothly across the glass. If the paint leaves streaks, you need to add more vinegar and try again. It should go on with a smooth coat. Now let the slide dry on air. Then carefully peel off the tape and get the slide. Use a damp cloth to clean off any excess titanium dioxide that might have oozed around behind the slide or off the edges. Place the slide, conductive side up, on a hot-plate and heat to 200+ celsius (preferably 550 celsius). The detergent and the vinegar will burn away and bake together the particles of titanium dioxide so that they stick to the glass. At first it will turn yellow and then turn light again as this happens. The whole process takes about 20 minutes. As that happens, get some fresh raspberries (juice made from artificial flavoring cannot be used) and crush them. Now get the cooled titanium dioxide slide and pour a few drops of the raspberry juice onto it. Be careful not to damage the titanium dioxide. Let it sit for a few minutes so the anthocyanin dyes absorb into the titanium dioxide. Then carefully pour water and alcohol over the slide to wash away raspberry bits and other chemicals we don't need. Let the slide dry. Take another indium tin oxide glass slide and pass the conductive side through a candle flame several times. This will build up a layer of soot that we need to catalyze the redox shuttle. Carefully wipe away the excess soot from the edges so that they match with the titanium dioxide from the slide. Now we make the redox shuttle and electrolyte by mixing 127mg of iodine crystals with 830mg of potassium iodide and 10mL ethylene glycol. Mix thoroughly until completely dissolved. Place a few drops of the redox shuttle and electrolyte onto the titanium dioxide and place over it the soot covered slide. The coated sides must be facing each other. Be sure to offset the slides so that you can access the conductive sides of both. Bind the slides together using binder clips. And that's done. the positive side is the soot covered slide, while the negative side is the titanium dioxide slide. Use alligator clips to contact the exposed sides. The titanium dioxide (anatase type) and potassium iodide and iodine were purchased from Alfa Aesar. http://www.alfa.com
Man, every time I see your video, my mind is just blown that you can do so many things with just regular stuff and without spending thousands on various chemicals. Keep up the good work :)
Hi! I just recently saw this experiment, and have a question: how long can you keep this solar-cell? does it detoriorate in time?
Hello, and thank you for your time to inspire others (like my son) to learn about DSSC's. My son has struggled to sinter TiO2 onto a plastic substrate (ITO film) - best results (though poor) were in an oven at 400F. Unfortunately, most of the TiO2 does not sinter to the film, but washes off when soaked with the dye. Any suggestions? Wondered about using electricity or even infrared to improve sintering outcome. Thank you again.
This is incredible. Thanks for the demonstration! Where do you find your materials?
Thanks so much for making this video it helped me come up with an IRP topic for this year. These cells are very cool! I would know now given that I researched them for hours. Also I found even more improvement then you listed at the end of your video. If anybody has any questions on how I made mine, how i got my materials, or about any research I did feel free to ask!
I'm about to spend my next two years investigating DSCs, and happened to remember an old NurdRage video about solar cells. Wouldn't you know it, it's the perfect introduction to the field! Thanks to your simple, experimental approach to chemistry, I have an excellent complement the information I find in my first articles. Many thanks from an long-standing fan! Keep up the good work!
Es impresionante muy buena explicacion me parecio impresionante el plastico conductivo o sea ITO (oxidos de io indio con tin sno) aplicados a paneles solares muy bueno es un material sorprendente usados en pantallas oled actualmente...
Awesome vid, Nurdrage. Its incredible how "simple" a solar cell can be made.
Great video! I have one question though how would someone combine solar cells to make one big solar panel? Thanks Garrett
I've never been very good at science, but it's so fascinating to watch your videos,they are also quite entertaining, you make science fun, I've never been able to find that in many other places, and it's kind of inspiring, but I am so accident prone I couldn't actually do any of this, but for you to show all the reactions and everything, it's awesome cause I can learn so much from you. thanks for posting so many interesting and awesome videos.
I love your videos dude. Keep up your work. You should too more videos about batteries and electro chemistry :)
Nice! I did the experiment myself some time ago (using hibiscus tea for the dye). I also did some efficiency measurements depending on temperature, area and lighting conditions. I got a meager 0,0002 (0,02%) when heated to 60°C. But it worked! Btw NurdRage, be aware of the desk lamp you are using! I had the same model (from IKEA I think). The sliding contacts in the lower joints heated to almost 200°C (measured with an IR-thermometer after I saw the plastic melt away)
Wow, really interesting video, thanks for posting. Also thanks for explaining how it actually works too :)
@NurdRage I find even the videos without a chemical reaction interesting. Agreed that no matter what you do, there will always be people that approve and disapprove. Keep up the good work :)
I love your videos! I'm a grad student now (inorganic) and I love to watch. Keep it up!
Great video! But I have a question. What is the reason of heating the TiO2 besides securing the adherence to the ITO?
Hi, I like your videos very much :) Can you please show how to make ferrofluid? i had watched some videos but i don't know how to make it, it looks fun and interesting :)
Hi from Argentina, Dr. Rage! Your video is amazing! I am trying to do this experiment with children at school (8 year old) and I wonder how can I transform microscopy slides into solar cell glass like the one you show. Unfortunately in Argentina there is not such product and there are government restrictions to import them!. I would appreciated your help and thank you very much for all.
I'm wondering, do you think this would work using tomatoes which have been bred to produce anthocyanin? I am not sure of the concentrations they produce
when i first saw this about a year or two ago it looked like it was impossibly hard and complex, now that i've been working on my own projects it doesn't seem to be so crazy anymore.
I am interested to hear about your project, what did you find that is a better electrolyte than the one used in this video, also what semi-conductor did you use?
Edmund De Kock, I never actually did this myself I got a fiancee and that honestly is more complicated than anything I've ever done.
I seem to keep returning to this every year, it's about time I actually made it and started experimenting with it, it seriously sounds stimulating
I love this. other youtubers do the experiment but never explain them except you! :)
Great video :) Just wondering though, how do you choose your next video topic? They're all great and it seems like you're trying to cover all of your scientific bases.
I like science but I never found anyone passionate enough to teach science the way you do. Keep up the GREAT work :-) !!!!!!!!!!!!
THANK YOU!!! great videos man, im an enthusiast of chemistry, and i was wondering why you stopped uploading? thank you again
When you used the raspberries I quickly checked if this video was uploaded on 1 April lol... But when you explained how it worked, everything became clear as a daylight ....
I should've never known such thing is possible...
Thnx man you're awesome
I showed this to my entire class with my teacher watching and they liked it! Great video mate :D
I used to work to try and improve efficiency of thin film solar cells using silver nanoparticle arrays on back reflectors... very interesting field. I think a break through in thin film solar cells is imminent
cool video! an ionic liquid seems like it would be the best solvent. a darker dye seems like it would work better too because it absorbs more light, like those organometallic compounds. I know aluminium nitride is a direct bandgap semi conductor, do you think that would be more efficient?
I really like how you're teaching regular people the theory just in case someone might have an epiphany that changes the world and furthers technology. :D
NurdRage i think your videos are awesome and really interesting to watch, i know your general purpose of the videos is to explore the "science" behind what it is your studying, but i like alot of fizzing, popping and banging! can we have some videos that have some cool chemical reactions? just like the making of the glow sticks in the beakers, the dehydration of sugar and the nitric acid disolving the copper, they are all really cool reactions and im sure you could explain the science to! (:
Its great to have all the suggestions for improvements at the end. Thanks heaps for the video! Appreciate it!
another great video !!! thanks for sharing all this with us ! :) 5*
Would the pH of the anthocyanin effect the voltage emitted from the solar cell?
hermoso... que dedicacion y tiempo invertido en todos estos videos. He aprendido mucho. Thanks for the vids... still learning alot... Hope your channel is still available for my kids.
I have two important questions: 1:TiO2 is an n-type semiconductor so it forms the negative terminal. If I use a p type semicon, what modifications do I have to make? 2:Does the colour of the semiconductor affect the solar panel's working?
What is the maximum theoretical efficiency % of this type of solar cell?
@NurdRage Do you have any suggested reading on photovoltaic lab production like what you are doing here. I am a chemistry teacher at a high school and this topic is new to me. I have known about the cells for a while but what you did hear would AMAZE my kids and I wanted to read about it before we worked on something like this next year. Thanks.
I think you can use any spheric shape that will spread out the TiO2 paste evenly without streaks. (:
Your presentations are wonderful! It's a real shame that they don't teach 'you' in schools opposed to the current methods found in your typical chemistry classes. I speculate if they did, comprehension and let's not forget fun, enjoyment and desire would markedly improve.
The detergent contains surfactants. Those reduce surface tension of water and, in this case, prevent the TiO2+H2O mixture from beading on the glass and remain in an uniform thin layer while it's dried and baked. Without detergent (any detergent) the TiO2 paste will form beads/droplets.
Sweet, I had asked if you could cover this. Could you make a light emitting capacitor? Or even an atomic battery? I was going to save up a shwack load of smoke detectors for the americium.. But never got around to getting more than 4 or so lol.
Love your stuff, Dr, Rage. One question, though: due to an unfortunate accident during my high school years that I was fortunate enough to witness but not be directly affected by, seeing that tri-iodide ion makes my spidy-senses perk up. Maybe I'm paranoid, but seeing the I3 reminds me far too much of NI3. What would I need to avoid doing to keep from introducing Nitrogen into this mix? Note: I have all ten fingers. I'd like to keep it that way. My High School 'friend' wasn't so fortunate.
could you re-apply the tape to the titanium dioxide side to ensure you don't short out the cell? or at this point would tape be too thick?
I just wanted to say thank you for this video... Just knowing that sort of thing is possible in a relativly low tech way is a real eye opener. It's been a long time since I did any chemistry, so my understanding of quite whythis works is not so good...I understand you explination of the way in which it works though, so that's a start at least. It's nice that it's possible to dabble in something that hopefully will be very important in the future.
How did you manage to react the iodide and potassium iodide without an aqueous medium? I thought two solids are never able to react with each other unless there is an aqueous solution. Also, do you think substituting titanium dioxide with silicon nitride would make the solar cell more efficient?
honestly if schools could teach students with these examples in live testing then many students such as myself wouldnt have failed chemistry. i majored in physics but failed terribly in chemistry, my first year of high i never understood it and i dont know how guessing things would make me scrape and pass to move on to the second and third year of highschool, unfortunately in my forth year my luck ran out and i failed, it would have been fascinating to learn chemistry.i wish i can go back and learn it. that was a nice vid man,
+Adan Olivera Blame the teacher(s) not the generalized 'schools'. You could also blame yourslef, if you so choose, but that may also be unfair.
I agree, the education system is backwards on math and science. Practical applications should be taught first, followed by theory and formulas. When you see something work, it makes you curious how, and more receptive to the theory side. sitting students in a lecture hall for 6 months working formulas on paper is a complete waste, as no curiosity is generated, therefore the work seems like busywork with no point, and most students zone out.
I start my internship tomorrow,this what I’m going to make
Titanium dioxide can be found in some tooth pastes you can directly apply tooth past instead of TiO2 and use tincture iodine
I LOVE THESE VIDEOS!!! MAKE MORE VIDEOS!!! :D
I hope this inspires heaps of development in the field. Great vids, thanks. You know what I would love to see is a better use of all that money and skill currently being wasted on The LHC and, to a lesser degree Tokamak. Why? Because there are already dozens of semi developed technologies like solar, magnetic, antigravitic, geothermal etc etc that need refining NOW for our immediate clean energy needs. Imagine how efficient solar would be if six thousand million dollars was spent on it instead!
Afrotechmods - 2010-09-12
You are awesome.
Qurrota Technology - 2021-04-05
Hey sir i subscribe your channel too..