1669 Using Leaves To Improve Solar Cells
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 25 авг 2024
- Don't forget to check out our other channel found here / @tntomnibus
If you want to have a look at those special videos become a member and join by clicking this link / @thinkingandtinkering
Don't forget that you can buy my books and materials for your own experiments including our conductive inks at secure.working... - and for the many who have asked, yes, you can also donate to further our work, again through the shop.
Robert do you ever take a break? You keep pumping out these amazing videos and everyday I come home from work and drink a coffee and watch.
This is the kind of stuff that makes RUclips great.
You are a big inspiration to me, I only wish I had more time to join you on these ventures.
Don’t ever stop… we are watching. 👍
bless your heart mate and cheers
I’m really just here to listen to Rob laugh.
Great video Rob.
lol - cheers mate
Would like to see this experiment done outside...on a cloudy day...and see if in fact UV can be converted...Best DVD:)
go fo bit mate
@@ThinkingandTinkering will try
@@lightcapmath2777 did you try it?
@@replikvltyoutube3727 No, am busy tutoring students in math, physics and chem. DVD
Is there anyway to do this with the light of the moon?
I am dumbfounded and agast. What a result. I can see your locality will be devoid of leaves shortly. Your genius and lateral thinking keeps shining through, THANKS
lol- cheers mate
That was surprisingly more of an increase than I thought.
me too !
20 years in the haunted house industry searching for new ways to create fluorescent props and never heard about using chlorophyll.. I see some experiments in the future, which glows better, dark green tree leaves or bright green grass... you never are too old to learn new tricks!! thanks Robert!
12% increase is not shabby.. I really wouldn't have guessed it would improve it that much.
I got 6% 0.4/6.4*100% as it more or less went from 6.4V to 6.8V
Looked like the meter went from 5.9-6.0 to 6.8 in the video.
@@yougeo but without anything on top it was 6.4V. And 6.0 with the foil and isoprop
Fantastic. I really chuckled when you grabbed those leaves off the branch. Could you try 1 more time after dehydrating the mixture a bit to see if concentrating it boosts even more?
to be honest mate what I am really trying to do is encourage people to experiment - I would be great if someone did try that - but for me the main point of the video was how easy it can be to do experiments - you don't need a lot of equipment or processes and there is the possibility of finding something great
@@ThinkingandTinkering did you know that ethanol is better at dissolving chlorophyll than IPA(propan2ol) is? Lol I do,dont ask!!!
it gets more excited than Luke when it does a particularly good video !!!!!!!!!!!!! good one Rob
I wonder if it would be possible to "grow" solar cells using Robert's conductive ink, UV sensitive epoxy and some dopants (B4C and graphitic CN plus some thermoluminecent).
... possibly using the way they grow nanotubes on a substrate.
Search about silicon leaves for a similar idea.
that is a very intriguing idea mate - cheers
That's amazing! 👏
Thanks!
During this video I remember that inside fluorescent tubes is UV-Light which gets converted to visible light by special coating inside.
Don't ask me what stuff it is... no idea!
But this might be a solutiuon to increase output power of solar cells.
basically zinc sulphide mate
Outstanding Robert!!
cheers mate
Brings all new meaning to the term "green energy"....
you win, I subscribed
Nice one Robert, thanks for sharing 🙂
I am glad you liked it
Learn so much from watching these videos 😃
cheers mate
Quinine also fluoresces under UV light. You could make a Gin and Tonic solar cell.
Amazing thanks for the demo.
Brilliant!!! Love it.
Robert, Eco Guards IES is testing the taping of living plants, in order to determine in a linked series, how much current can be harnessed. They hope to show those results through their YT channel in the future.
I must check it out - cheers mate
5% improvement here, 10% there...if we add them all up we will have a solar panel that works at 90% efficiency! ;)
Thanks Robert, yet another "food for thought and experimentation" idea. You are a marvel mate!!
I agree mate
@@ThinkingandTinkering You agree you are a marvel? Bloody oath you should!
Your mad scientist laugh is so infectious!
Well worth the chuckle.
cheers mate
What I saw was 6.4V bare solar cell, to 6.8V with alcohol/chlorophyll mix.
sounds about right
I like that idea. It is somewhat like my experiment with radium impregnated pigment that I did when I was a youngster. It might be worth a revisit to try many different materials, though I am on a current bend to think that just photovoltaic may not be the way to go. For example a cell that is both photovoltaic and alpha-voltaic, beta-voltaic, ect may be more efficient. Multiple energy inputs at the same time may be better. Who knows what the future may hold. That is exciting to me.
Or better ways to convert everything to heat (assuming it's worth the effort).
it is exciting to me too mate - thanks for sharing
That absolutely rocks and I got a good laugh to boot!
awesome mate - cheers
RMS, you could also get the chlorophyll from algae. This would be using the red tide to your advantage!
Yeah I was thinking you could stream a thin film of chlorella or spirulina over solar panels. It would then cool the panels and raise the output AND warm the cultures. Win-Win-Win
nice idea mate - cheers
Brilliant! I love your enthusiasm when an experiment works out the way you expected
lol - cheers mate
Great work!
cheers mate
Excellent, and I did not know chlorophyll was fluorescent. I wonder if this is why leafs are so reflective in the infrared band, really plays hell with our IR security cameras. Great video, lots of potential here.
cheers mate
You sir and your brother, of which I have subscribed to are great sirs.
Thank you kindly sir
Although I don't see chlorophyll lasting long, being a landscaper I already have a virtually unlimited supply and it would just add an extra step to what I already do with clippings. I bet you could even combine a hydroponic system with a solar system and just change the water often.
I don't see it lasting that long either but I thought it was interesting
good job Rob
cheers mate
That was a really interesting experiment! I just smile with you in the end part! :) THX! BLADE
cheers mate
Brilliant 👏 👏
Both graphite and molybdenum sulfide, have intense photovoltaic properties in infrared light, I can't find the article Amy more, but researchers at Malaga Spain university put a dot of graphite ink on a t-shirt had someone where it and the person's body heat (IR spectrum) was strong enough to charge the graphite dot and power an led, molybdenum sulfide, a similar material has similar photovoltaic properties
Great Proof of Concept....Congrats
cheers mate
Cool😍😍😍
Catalistic exeletlrator.
Like the green carrys more ions in your languids ions as the release of less negative space💜
See😍😍😍 you ad more ions to been pushed wow bi the rising resistence feields
Between the less negative under the seeth and the more but everighe negative above the sheets your waves get bicker 😍
Look to today's replay in our wave energy video of 11 months ago💜😍💜
🛸
And jad with the doping you have this feathers below to in you words to atrect a electron😍
Understand wat we named sunlight is do to the more thentional diverentional of the space bi the clumping of space do to eurths resistance .
Nou you ad clumping space there💜 whay you have more light behavieure below your grean and within the sheath above the grean😍
We do globle the same with led light we introduce less negative space more ratio more globle warming than with carbon alone🤣😅😅😅
Thank you😍 for your beautiful sharings and opservations💜
Oll injoy beïng🖖🌈🌈💜🍀🌳🍀💜
🐢
I've been playing around with spirulina (a type of food grade algea), and there is an interesting blue pigment called phycocyanin. I still don't know a whole lot about algea, but I know the pigment is pretty easy to extract and is a major accessory to how they do photosynthesis. Maybe it would have a similar effect to chlorophyll on solar cells, though I suspect a mix of phycocyanin and chlorophyll would be best.
I grow spirulina as a hobby and i had a simillar idea, if you put a solar panel under your algae pond you use the energy that the algae can't absorb and turn it into electricity.
What do you think of coating the solar panel with a foil, building a thin pouche to let a fluid with the dyes be pumped through. If we do this with welded foil as cheap interlinking pipes, we can build up a solar thermal circuit to cool PV in summer, where heat is bringing down efficacy hugely. And to bring in new dyes or re-structure the UV damaged ones in a catalytic process. Perhaps let algae behind some membrane exchanger do the work.
you can lose a lot of light at the interface of anything you add to the top of a solar cell - but I dole the ideas - I can see a bit of work to get it to work but I can also see possibilities here
Just brilliant!
Why is it that Governments don’t get a handful of people with inquiring minds together to create ways of improving life?
Oh yeah… It’s Government. And they are always about a can short of a 6-pack.
Wow, that was really an interesting experiment. And surprisingly simple!
cheers mate
Time to paint the panel with fluorescent ink and see how that works. I find it hard to believe that manufacturers have overlooked something as simple. 👍😎 I was looking this up and found an article which says ,
Yale researchers recently discovered a way to boost the efficiency of solar cells by a whopping 38 percent by coating them with a fluorescent dye. Polymer solar cells are popular for their low cost, low weight, large area and mechanical flexibility, according to , but they are relatively inefficient at converting solar energy absorbed into usable electricity. The organic squaraine dye improves light absorption and recycles electrons, thereby hastening the light to energy conversion process.
Well, I don't have squarine dye, but I do have a load of green or red Poundland highlighters and a sacrificial panel!!
I was donated the base of highlighters by basf special colors division, it is called
Tinopal NFW liquid
Somewhere I have the datasheet.
I wanted to do indoor self-navigating peeing robots that could mark the wall with a mini-barcode of 2-3 stripes to „number“ a „beacon“ for triangulation.
But I recommend diving into Rylene chemistry.
Perhaps Rob finds a way to cook these cheaply and safely.
thanks for sharing mate - it is interesting to know the basic idea is being looked into by Yale - it kind of means we are not on the wrong track here - the rest is about finding a good material to do the job so to speak
I have a quick read on them mate and you are right they are fascinating - apparently already being looked into as a possible material - the synthesis looks a little complicated for theme chemist though - but I will continue to look
Sounds interesting Robert. Worth try. But may increase some work content on maintaining solar panels, though. Experiments will generate a lot of data. Will let you know Robert.
It would be interesting to compare non-coated cells and the chlorophyll and an orange and yellow fluorescent marker - all 'painted' over the cells
- outside, in natural sunlight, of course :ø)
go for it mate
Awesome!!!
cheers mate
Another Fantastic video, many thanks. 😁✌️❤️🤘
cheers mate
Brilliant!
cheers mate
Amazing! I wish I had a workshop like yours :(
I am actually VERY surprised by this, I thought that any gains would be less than the losses considering you just put a green filter over the cells. But great!
It would be even more if 1, you were out in the sunlight, and 2, if you could get the free hydrogen protonization effect out of photosynthesis from the reaction.
Plants appear green but it's the other colors they adsorb. Green gets reflected. But either way light is attenuated by the surface but off the top of my head I am thinking green goes through easier... Right? Buhhhh I need more coffee.
the emission must be higher than the blocking effect is all I can say
@@ThinkingandTinkering Yep, no argument from me on that! Nice to have my scepticism proven to be unfounded :)
@@ThinkingandTinkering but I wonder if that vanishes with a thicker layer... Should be a simple extension of your current experiment. :)
Corundum with chromium impurities also takes uv and emits red wavelengths...but I'm sure someone has thought of this before...
don't be so sure mate - thanks for sharing
Fascinating proof of concept..if a synthetic material that can "glow" from infrared etc could that be put permanently into the top coating?
I have the glow in the dark soap,, and it's got some plant based chemical makeup that causes it to glow so I got to thinking what about firefly type light chemical reaction to make use of.
I wonder if I could grow a self-healing algae across it that would work.
worth a try mate
That's a big one Rob. Can you suggest a solvent carried clear varnish that I can mix the leaf juice in and paint it on?
If I can just wipe it off with isopropyl and reapply when it degrades, then this may fix my issues with stuff all sunshine in constantly wet and cloudy winters we are getting. And sunburn in ten minutes on cloudy days due to 10x the UV we were getting a decade or two back in NZ.
I was doing some measurements at sunset (without this thing, but maybe will try also) and can get some decent volts, but the panel had no power (amps). And also it's a fact the power curve of a solar panel isn't linear. It's good to always test the whole power output.
So a flow of the liquid under a front price of glass would convert more sun to ir that the panel could use and draw heat away from the panel improving it's efficiency.
A 10% improvement is worth a lot! Could probably get the chlorophyll from grass cuttings right?
try a thin layer of calcite nano powder, get some calcite and mill it and make an ink with it,or maybe you could grow tiny crystals of calcite on a plastic film or the glass itself or indeed making non crystalline calcite glass by rapid cooling of molten calcite (stable calcium carbonate mate!)??? or a thin slice of optically clear calcite crystal? reason i say this is because calcite fluoresces and is translucent)
those are great tips mate - thank you for sharing
Im just excited as he gets
lol - awesome
Not just chlorophyll it will include all the plants oils .
Surely an improvement on this principle is contingent upon making a glass cover for your panel integrated with fluorescent compounds that not only convert the UV into significant amounts of light at a useful wavelength but convey it in one direction (towards the panel). To achieve a total gain this would have to occur without limiting the existing useful direct light if this is still more productive than the fluorescent source. Someone must have worked on this already? Are there any materials that convert UV into significant amounts of visible light?
Fascinating... i'm wondering if you used some kind of a phosphorus paint, glow paint, something like that. Probably a bit watered down.. Wouldn't this do the same thing and since its not an organic substance, it wont break down and last longer.
it's a balance you have to let the light in too
Should have been minimal UV indoors under led or fluorescent lights...
for sure
First comes magic mushrooms and now tree hugging. I think you might need some hippy style clothing soon Rob.
Struggling to get back in the sing of things after holidays
lol - start worrying when I end a video with 'peace out' mate
That's incredible .. and I would like to see what it does out side in the sun. I have wondered about this .. I have been thinking of leaves as solar cells. Amazing!!
You and me both! but I would think it would be short lived mate
Now I want to coat a pv panel with glow in the dark spray pain 😏
Awesome experiment!
remember it's a balance - you still have to let light through mate
Hi there ! I stumble upon an article about low tech solar cell.
I was wondering if you could do a video about this solar cell based George Cove's discovery in the early's 20th century. It is a solar cell based on zinc antimonide material ! (said to be 100% recyclable)
I have fun with this stuff stories.
it is fun
What? No chlorophyll gelatin? LoL
thought about it - but gelatine won't set in IPA - it goes stringy
@@ThinkingandTinkering
Ah. But ethanol "jello shots" are quite popular at fraternity parties. LoL
Interestingly, the mitochondria in our cells also respond to near infrared light and - it seems - can metabolise using it as energy :-)
I didn't know that = that's actually quite fascinating
I have a luminescent powder to add to your jelly prisms that I am interested if it will improve absorption.
I can send you some if you like...
It glows in the dark!
it's a kind offer mate - but I have some LIT powder
@@ThinkingandTinkering The one and the same! Do let me know the outcome :)
i really love watching your yt videos. Hope I can think of a title for my research/thesis this term that I can also do a prototype 😁
keep me in touch with that mate - I would be fascinated to know
Cool
cheers mate
great! 👍
cheers mate
What if you could grow some kind of algae on the solarpanel?
maybe mate - cheers
Hi Rob.
Couldn’t the chlorophyle be traped in shelac, or another clear varnish to paint it on the panel?
to my mind that would decrease the effectiveness of it. BUT for sure that would be an interesting experiment. Thanks for the idea I've got an old solar cell kicking around my workshop and I've have a tin of clear varnish from some of my woodworking projects. Maybe I'll give it a go
I don't know mate - worth a go - fancy trying it?
Maybe I would, I should have 25 year old garden lights somewhere to try it on.
But I thing it would oxydise, what could I add to mininimise that?
I pour rosemarinus on my meat before grilling as antioxydising agent, that’s about all of the chemestry I have time to practice. :-D
I hope that our friend Mi Samsung will try, and tell us the results.
Cheers.
Awesome! What about toi incorporate chlorophylle in a gel ?
Thank you Rob & Luke! Now that we know fluorescence can boost a PV cell. I have a question for solar engineers here; Can the panel be constructed/printed on red PHOSPHORESCENT plastic? and add to this a layer of red fluorescent acrylic or the chlorophyll method Rob just showed? Also for that matter, would it be possible to create a semi transparent graphene PV panel that glows red in the dark?
You have to be very careful of the plastics you use. A lot will break down with UV exposure.
@@JehuMcSpooran it does not have to be plastic, there are printers that can do this with wood or ceramic filaments.... Would it work?
@@captainnemo6655 Have never seen substantial radiation levels from phosphorous energy storage.
As for normal enhancement: One could include another layer of glass onto the existing one and build a cuvette like "liquid carrying cell" to pump through fluids. By this you can
a) enhance efficacy (the cooler the more efficient) and warm your pool and
b) enhance efficacy by down-conversion and
c) constantly filter out the worn-out dyes, and thus could even use chlorophylls, or, at night, could make light by charged-up phosphorous systems, but half will light up the sky.
So no, d) : make energy at night is nothing I would bet on ;) But the rest is really cool ;)
And I would not demise the idea of a phosphorous system "charging up", as it is that of eg a liquid battery photocatalytically charged, but I would like to find ways to directly "discharge" it somewhere else, insides, not on the roof top ;)
Perhaps we finde stimulated discharge, so the energy is stored stably till needed some hours or days later.
Phosphorous: But this makes no sense in the prospect of the material we were given by Rob: graphitic carbon nitride. Just watch his clip "DIY safe hydrogen storage", then play with doping the material with different metal atoms or complexes. Search one catalyst that directly upon shining (concentrated?) light upon it does H2, O2 or NH3 synthesis as needed. We need to 3D print structures that have a lung like structure for gas transportation, and additionally have a capillary feed for liquids to the structure (water for H2 electrolysis or photocatalytic production) or away (eg NH3 as product, 9-10bars of pressure in case of "air N2" fed in 3H2+N2=>2NH3.
Or gas and water H2O to NH3 synthesis, or water in case of H2 synthesis)
Club soda glows under a black.
Oh... I recall a similar thing you did with batteries.
did I? - that must have been a while ago - you have a better memory than me lol
I wonder why factories don't do this. Seems they could mass produce a coating for this.
I suspect there is more too it mate - life time for example - we don't know how long this would last it might just be an hour or two - but there are quite a few things to work through and it is a topic of research
So the chlorofil converts infrared light into red light, and the solar panel works better. But you did this indoors, so what was the source of infrared light ?/.
Hi, new subscriber. Probably a daft question but could you combine previous experiments and have prismatic chlorophyl jellies on each cell?
Or on a lenticular lens/surface over the top?
Rylene dyes?
Dear Rob, habe you found a real-world application that is sufficiently enduring the UV and that we could DIY cook to coat on the glass of PV modules?
I would ask manufacturers of glass coating technologies to find durable and affordable ways to coat an existing solar cell.
We could do something like a window cleaning robot able to spray dyes from a ink jet printer head like nozzle, or ultrasound nebulizer or airless spray.
I find it so much more beneficial to improve efficacy by down-converting than to add another layer of perovskite module having totally different material properties like thermal expansion gradient etc. and probably different electrical properties demanding a secon set of inverter or doubling the number of mppt inputs you need.
never heard of relent dyes thanks for suggesting it mate and I am with you I suspect replacing one part of a system would really mean replacing the whole system
@@ThinkingandTinkering Found a paper claiming good + of efficacy, 9,x%, probably not easy to gain if coating the top glass by some „window cleaning robot“ with a inkjet nozzle :))
. Still:
„Down-Conversion Beschichtung Efficiency enhancement of silicon solar cells through a downshifting and antireflective oxysulfide phosphor layer“ - ScienceDirect
Trees ? Now that's a Novel idea. Who would have thought ??
lolol
Wonder if you encased the chlorophyll in a plastic on epoxy if it would slow it's breakdown.
Can add chlorophyll in the depletion region
What about carbon dots, it fluoresce in UV light.
I would think so mate
Wouldn’t flouracil a stable dye mixed with pva or water varnish make a suitable stable coating?
worth a try mate
Well,… there goes the rain forest😬🙈 … and all the alcohol…
Leafs should stay on a tree to convert CO2 and alcohol is for consumption🤔😝😇
Btw,… interresting way of using this material… how to make it more solid, stable and do not evaporate the alcohol.
I’m looking forward to this😎
how about we use algae blooms as a source?
@@ThinkingandTinkering it wil be a problem when temperature rises above 18 degrees celcius… it forms a cover so no light can penatrate anymore…😬
You can see this happening in still water… and an amazing place for bacteria…
Btw, i already informed for fluorecence acrylic plate… i can’t find any plate 1m/2m under the price of 199€😬 i need 20m2.
Hi mate good video, I did wonder if you just painted a thin layer of highlighter pen over a cell if that would work, it might also reflect to much light away from the cell.
I'll try it myself and report back!
please do mate - I would be interested to know
What about Water tight ziplock bag with the pigment present? Or even a glass bottle? As it is 2 volt jump from 4.8-6.8. About 45% gain? Nice work rob! Any other fluid that do this? So you can select the exact light? Anything that can phase change gamma radiation? Or Long wave radio signal? Like what you did. Very much like stage filters.
oh - it went from 6.4 to 6.8 really mate - so about 6%
@@ThinkingandTinkering watch the video back, I called it from lowest voltage before treating it and after. Lowest recorded voltage which is the flux range towards highest voltage. before chlorophyll the lowest voltage reading was about 4.8v after the treatment the highest was about 6.8.v. I noticed it added near half on top of the originals base voltage. At a squiggle 100% would have been 8.6v. You got at the top end 6.8. assuming that the lowest the voltage can go, is the minimum output for that solar cell. Chlorophyll max voltage 6.8.
Interesting.
So chlorophyll shifts the light frequency.
What about Perovskite? Will it generate Electricity directly or also shift frequencies to allow better energy utilization?
Fluorescence is characterized by differing quantum efficiency properties in various solvents and pH regimes suggesting at least some directions for experiments in the future... I know this is just a one off trial that warrants more vigorous scientific experimentation. The blue green algae (cyanobacteria) has a greater proportion of P680 chlorophyll so there is that to try as well.
A study of how nature keeps "off" reactions such as photo bleaching that destroys the chromophores from inevitably happening also suggests that the life of the chromophore solution has directions for improved design too. This part involves something like leaf O2 generation from ROS that act to destroy the chromophores in all fluorescence photo bleaching.
all good points mate and thank you for taking the time to share them
@@ThinkingandTinkering glad to throw in a my few cents worth from Big Island ! It was also good for a trip down the literature rabbit hole researching until wifey dragged me off to drive to Hilo and re-provision our larder. Cheers!
I wonder if you could use a living layer of algae to get a similar result 🤔. You can also make bio diesel from algae
that's an interesting idea mate - cheers
I wonder if you could just use a sheet of hydrogel for your chlorophyll solution. As a way to mix and hold fluorescent dyes.
for sure
I'd think that being able to utilize energy from UV light could be hugely advantageous during cloud cover. I'm assuming UV penetrates clouds better than visible sunlight. Is this assumption correct?
Yup. That is why you can still get sunburnt with cloud cover.
I too would love to see a real-world experiment with this.
yes it is
what about uranium glass? i know its radioactive and all but it glows under uv and shoud not break down.
I think the fact that it is radioactive is going to make it a non starter in most folks mind mate
anyway solar cells could be made to imitate the shape of a leaf? It occurs to me that plants have evolved leaves to absorb as much solar radiation as possible, so their various shapes might be a good start to improving performance. I seen a thought emporium video recently on creating a "meat leaf" by decellurizing a leaf and then adding animal cells and encouraging them to grow. dunno if that's useful, but it's an interesting avenue if nothing else.
Would this work with a thin layer of living algae? Grow algae and produce more power from PV at the same time.
I don't know mate - might be worth a try
Growing algae on solar panels involves lots of water.
The cooling of the solar panels by all the water mass will be of great benefit, even if the clorophyl does nothing.
În fact i suspect the algae will not fluoresce at all since the metabolism of the living chloroplast will consume enough of the energy to never accumulate enough inside the molecule to let it fluoresce down from an excited state.
What about putting glow in the dark paint or powder on the cells?
for sur but remember it has to be a balance as you have to let the sunlight through as well
Does chlorophyll break down over time? How long can a chlorophyll coating last before it needs to be replaced?