Homemade Atomic Battery?

by Todd Murchison

It is somewhat unlikely that this will work, but it is a fun question to ask. Regular solar panels, they transmute photons of a certain frequency range into DC. I assume the chemistry, structure and color is optimized for that range of waves. But would photons of other energies at least kick some electrons loose from the solar cells to a multi-meter?

So I want to put some strong Alpha/Beta emitters up against them and see if anything comes of it. I will try starting with old strong alpha emitting Fiesta dishware, then work up through Thorium and stronger. (Note: This is all legal and being done safely). This is as much a log for me as entertainment for friends!

These are three solar cells I removed from a car window mountable solar charger. They are throwing out up to 5.5v under a good light.

They are all putting out <23mV when face down on that dark table. Some ambient light may be sneaking under the edges in this photo, it was also tested in darkness.

As a control, here is a standard little raw uranium ore test rock. As you see, the Geiger counter is getting 263cpm (counts per minute) off that sample at that instant. It averages between 230-280cpm.

Now the counter is measuring a Fiestaware dessert plate from the 50's. Popular line for awhile, and the orange and red glazed versions often had a fair amount of U-238 in them, which also decays into all kinds of fun things. You could buy it at Sears and in local shops and etc. I found this in a local 2nd Hand store. Its getting 3761cpm in that shot, averaging between 3500-4000cpm.

Now, a first crude test. Simply dumping a solar cell face down on the Fiesta plate and seeing if the multi-meter shows an uptick from its resting state (Note: I did the real tests in the dark)

-- Nope. If there is one, its too small for my poor-mans meter to pick up.

And that it for the moment.

-- Next steps:

Setup better connection between meter & cells.
Test cell output in total darkness both alone and on Fiesta.
Perform same test with Th and Am-241.

Google Sites

Report abuse