DIY: How to Make a Solar Cell at Home From Readily Available Stuff and… Blackberries

At the time they were invented, solar cells had been something fantastic to have, and only high-class scientists could replicate one in their well-equipped lab.

Now, thanks to Graetzel cells, dye can act like a light antenna, and titanium dioxide can act like a semiconductor. These two ingredients, put on a conductive glass, can transform light into electricity.

A very neat experiment that anyone with some skills can do in the garage or kitchen is creating a solar cell out of blackberry juice and titanium dioxide (and several other components), to create a Graetzel solar cell.

I urge any DIYer to try and do this, scale it up a bit and see what happens, what it can do with it, and tell us about how the experiment went.

Practically, after reading the tutorial below, you’ll become a scientist – and maybe your kid, too. It’s good to know how to make solar cells.

Here’s how a dye-sensitized solar cell is born…