Solar Cells

Today’s class was devoted primarily to the chemistry project. I know that I’ve referenced this project multiple times on the blog but have yet to describe it. Basically, there are eight groups of four in the class and each group is assigned a specific topic to research and an experiment to perform or a piece of equipment to build that requires the application of said research. 

In our group’s case, the subject was solar cells, specifically dye-sensitive cells. My research has been focused on photovoltaic effect which allows solar cells to function because photons from the sun’s electromagnetic radiation knock electrons into the conduction band so that they can flow and create a current. This is an admittedly incomplete explanation but gives the gist of how solar cells work. Tomorrow we will actually build our very rudimentary solar cell; it should be interesting and the procedures don’t seem too difficult.