Come on, enough skilled, experienced and smart people in this forum !

 

Come up with a fluid in a tub -or two layers of nonmiscible fluids, or whatever your knowledge yields- that when sun-bathed generate electricity at its electrodes.

It's about time...

 

Miguel

What would be the benefit of using a liquid? Why not just thin film deposition or even crystalline silicone?

 

The basic issue is that you need a method to transfer the movement of the electrons along a gate or a "wire" as it were. Liquid would be neat, but wouldn't seem a likely candidate to transfer the energy to a "collection" point and transfer elsewhere.

Benefit ? Just a shot in the air, as may be possible to make such thing at home with materials easier to make than cristalline silicon and thin film technologies.

 

The transfer part, if an electrode is at the bottom of the tub, under a couple of millimeters of fluid A, and electrode hairs immersed in fluid B layer above. The collectors cannot be a deterrent !

 

Put the thinking hats on !

My thinking hat is telling me that you have no concept of how solar cells are already manufactured.

 

Does my hat need detergent?

 

 

 

Either way, it has sorted you into Griffenhouse... Erm... I mean, check this out and refocus your question:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cell

IIRC, there is a way to make one that used copper oxide coated sheet of copper (you make that by heating a copper sheet and letting the air oxidise the outer layer), then this is put into salt water (yes, plain table salt) and then you need another electrode that I don`t remember what material of.

 

that apparently will generate electricity in sunshine.

it`s not exactly what the OP wanted, but it`s halfway there

A liquid would seem to be a deterrent if one wanted to tip the collector to maximize collection area.

What about a metal foil at the bottom of a tub/pond as one electrode, submerged in ONE liquid with floating whiskers/wires ?

 

(instead of the two nonmiscible PN junction liquids)

Phosphorus is interesting in that it can collect light energy into a semi-stable state and slowly release as it glows. Octopus can do this phosphorus affect with biological energy such as ATP, instead of light. So we reverse it; make ATP from sunlight and phosphorus. The ATP is also the same stuff that drives muscles. The entire device would be sun light, then phosphorous, to ATP, driving this huge arm that moves a large crank to generate electricity. The last part was too funny to resist. But the first part might work.