Lets say a perovskite photovoltaic researcher would like to make a few hundred million molecular variants then find out which produced the highest voltage or the highest current, that is, the highest performing photovoltaic.
well, first they use something like an inkjet printer with 16 different element cartridges, to make 16 factorial variations. Then they chemically react the printed dot pattern. At 9600 dpi 10" x 10" print area is over 9 million different formula chemical dots. Then you use acoustics to vibrate/anneal/further powderize the molecule to floaty dust.
A reply to the elctrical isolation of the photovltaic floating dust is on a vapor deposited base film of silver, a 9600 DPI printer combinatorially deposits 9 million variations on perovskite chemistry on a conductor. This makes the whole thing highly similar to a dust mote sized photovoltaic from radio shack.
Then you use the floaty dust in a Milliken oil drop experiment. At Millikens experiment, the place where the oil drops floated represented the balance between gravity and charge. They used this to calculate the charge of one electron.
so you have all these floaty dust particles, with millions of different chemical formulae. there they are floating. Then you shine light on them. The ones that accelerate the most are producing the highest voltage photoelectric effect. For current you turn the EM field up or down, and the ones that keep their elevation are producing higher currents.
So that is a way to screen hundreds of millions of new photovoltaic molecules to find the better ones rapidly.
I also think this would work with thermoelectrics, chemicals that emit electricity when heated. With thermoelectrics you shine IR lasers on them.-- beanangel, May 31 2017 Are you saying that if I shine a light on a small photovoltaic particle, its overall electric charge (not just charge distribution) will change?-- notexactly, Jun 01 2017 I thatk thin's whin he's gettatg in.
But the experiment, as described, is shirley a test of the photoelectric effect, not the photovoltaic effect.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 02 2017 That makes a lot more sense. Unfortunately it also sounds less useful.-- notexactly, Jun 03 2017 // Then you shine light on them. The ones that accelerate the most are producing the highest voltage photoelectric effect. For current you turn the EM field up or down, and the ones that keep their elevation are producing higher currents. //
These are small particles, suspended in an essentially non-conductive medium. Are you implying that the irradiation will produce an electrostatic charge ? No conventional current can flow since there is no "circuit".
Bad physics ...-- 8th of 7, Jun 03 2017 I have tried to recreate the millikan oil drop experiment. It is utterly tedious. A microscope, two plates connected to a voltage source and a spray nozzle for a bottle of oil. Most of the droplets get no charge at all, a few have a charge difference of one electron, some have a charge difference of two - these quickly fly away. To get anything approaching a realistic measurement, you need to measure hundreds of droplets.
The idea that you might be able to stick thousands of different materials in such a situation, and keep track of them independently, and get some kind of useful output, is ambitious. Additionally, unless your dust particles were identical in size and shape, their movement is going to be dominated by differences in air resistance.-- mitxela, Jun 03 2017 // To get anything approaching a realistic measurement, you need to measure hundreds of droplets. //
That's exactly what Millikan did. His notebooks show years of meticulous measurements before he finally published.-- 8th of 7, Jun 03 2017 // Additionally, unless your dust particles were identical in size and shape, their movement is going to be dominated by differences in air resistance. //
Wouldn't you have to perform the experiment in a vacuum for the photoelectric effect to work, which would also solve that problem?-- notexactly, Jun 03 2017 I adjusted the wording a little to say "on a vapor deposited film of silver, a 9600 DPI printer combinatorially deposits 9 million variations on perovskite chemistry"
This addresses the "bad physics" perspective. A photovoltaic from Radio shack has a big current collector (thin aluminum plate) behind the semiconductor layer, with, every couple centimeters, a top group of lines that let the electrons transport back.
I think doing it on a metal layer would do it. Also, who hasn't seen dust motes floating in sunlight or attracted to a CRT. Milliken like!-- beanangel, Jun 06 2017 //This addresses the "bad physics" perspective.// But the chemistry, not so much.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 06 2017 random, halfbakery