Correct me if I’m wrong, simply stating, the core of a solar panel consists of a silicone semiconductor, sandwiched between a negative conductor layer, and a positive conductor layer, while the current is transmitted through electrodes. My thing is, how are the negative conductors and positive conductors created? What are they and what is the science behind the whole thing?
I get how you can charge things rubbing cloth material over it. The free electrons would move from the glass to the silk. So is this how a positive conductor would be made? by freeing the electrons from the Nconductor and vise versa for the Pconductor?
In: 2
Your description of a solar panel is close, but not quite accurate. It consists of a positive and negative conductor, sandwiching 2 layers of silicone.
These 2 layers of silicone are where the ‘magic’ happens. These layers are slightly different, each ‘doped’ with some other elements.
One side has elements embedded in the silicone with a weak hold on their outer electrons. It only takes a tiny push to knock these electrons off.
The other side has elements embedded that are desperate for an electron, they have a nice little space prepared for it and everything.
When the right energy light comes in and hits one of those weakly held electrons, it jumps across the tiny barrier between these 2 layers of silicone and into the side with the atoms desperate for electrons.
Then it’s the conductors’ job. As electrons jump silicon layers, they cause a voltage difference where the desperate side has an excess of electrons causing, and the other side has too few. By attaching a conductor to each side, we can make the extra electrons flow back to the other side of silicone not bt jumping layers, but by flowing through a useful circuit like your fridge.
Latest Answers