RE: [Vo]:Liquid Glass

[Jones Beene]

-Original Message-
From: Horace Heffner 

> I am curious as to why you think circuits have to be etched? To use
silicon for a solar cell I think it has to be doped, so as to create a PN
boundary.  It is the potential drop across the PN boundary that actually
drives a solar cell.  The sun "merely" creates the ions in the gap so they
can be accelerated across it. 

Yes, all that is true, but as I understand the factors that drive photocell
efficiency - the etching is required to get "makeup" electrons to the
"depleted" sites with as little resistance as possible, and in the opposite
path - to remove them. Metal lines may not be required for this, since
silicon can be doped to conduct reasonably well, but it is probably more
efficient that way.

In the case of "liquid glass" the cool thing is that one could also
(probably) dope various layers easily by adding an electrolyte or nanopowder
in a few percent - right to the product - and apply in thin films. That
could be done easier than with a crystalline material - heck you might even
be able to do triple or quadruple layering with liquid glass if- as Ron
mentioned, the circuit layer(s), could be matched up... aluminum coated
mylar might work and has the advantage of transparency.

You will probably see this in a high school science fair project soon - if
it is indeed this simple to pull off.

Jones
 

Re: [Vo]:Liquid Glass

[Horace Heffner]

Jones,

Thanks for posting that reference! Cool! Actual desktop USB interface  
computer laser cutters.  And they sell used ones on occasion too.


That stuff reminds me of the liquid sodium silicate I used to play  
with as a kid.  It was sold under the name "Eisenglass" I think.  It  
came as a viscous liquid in quart cans.  It was used to paint eggs  
(still in the shells) in order to preserve them longer I think.  This  
lost importance when refrigerators became common.  I added chemicals  
like copper sulfate to the Eisenglass to grow a "chemical garden" in  
a glass jar. It formed neat plant-like tentacles.  I don't know where  
I got the "recipe" for that.  I think it might have been Sci. Am. or  
Pop. Sci.


I am curious as to why you think circuits have to be etched? To use  
silicon for a solar cell I think it has to be doped, so as to create  
a PN boundary.  It is the potential drop across the PN boundary that  
actually drives a solar cell.  The sun "merely" creates the ions in  
the gap so they can be accelerated across it.  I do wonder if it  
might be possible to use a zinc or zinc plated substrate (zinc is a  
hole conductor) coated with silicon that is chemically doped as an N  
(electron) conductor. If so, the remaining things necessary to create  
a solar cell are a transparent conductive overcoating, and possibly  
the printing of a very conductive metallic collector circuit on top.




On Feb 9, 2010, at 6:51 AM, Jones Beene wrote:


Ron,

You have to wonder - with liquid glass and a commercial laser engraver
(etcher) which is similar to an ink jet printer -

http://www.epiloglaser.com/product_line.htm

and some imagination and metal-coated film, if one could not etch the
circuits with the printer, then coat this film with the glass, and  
thereby
make a large and fairly efficient homemade nano-solar thin film  
photocell

array...

Jones

-Original Message-
From: Ron Wormus

This sounds very cool.

Ron






Best regards,

Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/

RE: [Vo]:Liquid Glass

[Jones Beene]

-Original Message-
From: Ron Wormus

> What I really need is a heater! It's been an unusually cold winter on the
CO front range this year & my gas bills crazy high just to keep this old
place around 60 degrees.


You should never have given up on those fractional hydrogen gas-discharge
tubes, Ron :)

Seriously, folks - space heating (yawn) is probably the number one most
useful application for either LENR or f/H. It's not fancy, and maybe that's
the problem; and you may only need it for 5 months a year, so palladium is
out, but still ... where's the beef?

Lest we not forget our history - eighteen years ago, Thermacore, Inc. now a
subsidiary of Modine International, ran an nickel light-water electrolytic
cell for over one year continuously for DARPA - and produced more "free
energy" in the form of low grade heat than the entire US "hot fusion
boondoggle" has given us (probably $20 billion down the drain in that same
time frame)... 

You cannot ever convince me that at tenth of the US investment in tokamaks -
if shifted to that program in the early 1990s, would not have resulted in
the availability of a simple space heater for wintertime use.

Jones

RE: [Vo]:Liquid Glass

[Ron Wormus]

Jones,
That would be an interesting project. More than one layer would be needed though & I don't know how 
accurately you could align the sheet for multiple passes. I think we will see some of the 
commercial panels drop in price.


In our local paper just this last week was an article on leasing a 10KW array for 20 yrs for just 
over $100 a month that included installation & maintenance. That is less than my current 
electricity utility bill so I am going to look into it. I am not sure I have enough roof space 
though.


What I really need is a heater! Its been an unusually cold winter on the CO front range this year & 
my gas bills crazy high just to keep this old place around 60 degrees.

Ron

--On Tuesday, February 09, 2010 7:51 AM -0800 Jones Beene  
wrote:


Ron,

You have to wonder - with liquid glass and a commercial laser engraver
(etcher) which is similar to an ink jet printer -

http://www.epiloglaser.com/product_line.htm

and some imagination and metal-coated film, if one could not etch the
circuits with the printer, then coat this film with the glass, and thereby
make a large and fairly efficient homemade nano-solar thin film photocell
array...

Jones

-Original Message-
From: Ron Wormus

This sounds very cool.

Ron

RE: [Vo]:Liquid Glass

[Jones Beene]

Ron,

You have to wonder - with liquid glass and a commercial laser engraver
(etcher) which is similar to an ink jet printer -

http://www.epiloglaser.com/product_line.htm

and some imagination and metal-coated film, if one could not etch the
circuits with the printer, then coat this film with the glass, and thereby
make a large and fairly efficient homemade nano-solar thin film photocell
array...

Jones 

-Original Message-
From: Ron Wormus 

This sounds very cool.

Ron

[Vo]:Liquid Glass

[Ron Wormus]

This sounds very cool.

Ron