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Edmond Becquerel created the world's first photovoltaic cell at 19 years old in 1839. 1839 - Edmond Becquerel observes the photovoltaic effect via an electrode in a conductive solution exposed to light. [ 1 ][ 2 ] 1873 - Willoughby Smith finds that selenium shows photoconductivity. [ 3 ]
In 1883, American inventor Charles Fritts made the first solar cells from selenium. Though Fritts had hoped his solar cells might compete with Edison’s coal-fired power plants, they were less than one percent efficient at converting sunlight to electricity and thus not very practical.
A solar cell is made of semiconducting materials, such as silicon, that have been fabricated into a p–n junction. Such junctions are made by doping one side of the device p-type and the other n-type, for example in the case of silicon by introducing small concentrations of boron or phosphorus respectively.
23 kwi 2014 · Word of Chapin’s solar power studies and dismal results got back to Pearson. He told Chapin, “Don’t waste another moment on selenium,” and gave him the silicon solar cell that he had made.
26 kwi 2023 · A few years later, in 1883, Charles Fritts actually produced the first solar cells made from selenium wafers – the reason some historians credit Fritts with the actual invention of solar cells. However, solar cells as we know them today are made with silicon, not selenium.
History of Solar Cell Development. It has now been 184 years since 1839 when Alexandre Edmond Becquerel observed the photovoltaic (PV) effect via an electrode in a conductive solution exposed to light [1].
26 lip 2023 · In 1877, Adams and Day observed the PV effect in solidified selenium and in 1904, Hallwachs made a semiconductor-junction solar cell with copper and copper oxide. However, this period was just a discovery period without any real understanding of the science behind the operation of these first PV devices.
