Selenium Wire or Foil for Photoconductivity Demonstration

or I guess "bars" od selenium would be ok. I want to reconstruct
Willoughby's discovery of photoconductivity for a science demo. Any
body in this group know where to purchase small amounts of selenium?
Yes I know it is a hazardous material and promise to be careful.

Thanks!

Ed V.

 

[John Fields]

On Tue, 30 Dec 2008 11:32:40 -0800 (PST), edvogel56@gmail.com wrote:

or I guess "bars" od selenium would be ok. I want to reconstruct
Willoughby's discovery of photoconductivity for a science demo. Any
body in this group know where to purchase small amounts of selenium?
Yes I know it is a hazardous material and promise to be careful.

---
http://www.americanelements.com/se.html

JF

 

[Sjouke Burry]

edvogel56@gmail.com wrote:

or I guess "bars" od selenium would be ok. I want to reconstruct
Willoughby's discovery of photoconductivity for a science demo. Any
body in this group know where to purchase small amounts of selenium?
Yes I know it is a hazardous material and promise to be careful.

Thanks!

Ed V.
Why not use copper foil for a demo?

hold the foil in a flame until nicely oxidized,
then clean a small area for electrode 1, apply
electrode 2 to the oxide, voila, a photo diode.

 

[John Fields]

On Wed, 31 Dec 2008 06:56:35 -0800 (PST), edvogel56@gmail.com wrote:

On Dec 30, 2:50 pm, John Fields <jfie...@austininstruments.com> wrote:
On Tue, 30 Dec 2008 11:32:40 -0800 (PST), edvoge...@gmail.com wrote:
or I guess "bars" odseleniumwould be ok.  I want to reconstruct
Willoughby's discovery of photoconductivity for a science demo.  Any
body in this group know where to purchase small amounts ofselenium?
Yes I know it is a hazardous material and promise to be careful.

---http://www.americanelements.com/se.html

JF  

I was hoping for smaller amounts than they offer.

---
http://www.alfa.com/

JF

 

On Dec 30, 3:21 pm, Sjouke Burry <burrynulnulf...@ppllaanneett.nnll>
wrote:

edvoge...@gmail.com wrote:
or I guess "bars" odseleniumwould be ok.  I want to reconstruct
Willoughby's discovery of photoconductivity for a science demo.  Any
body in this group know where to purchase small amounts ofselenium?
Yes I know it is a hazardous material and promise to be careful.

Thanks!

Ed V.

Why not use copper foil for a demo?
hold the foil in a flame until nicely oxidized,
then clean a small area for electrode 1, apply
electrode 2 to the oxide, voila, a photo diode.

I am trying to reconstruct Willoughby's discovery. Cu2O will come
further along with Grondahl and Ohl.

Thanks much,
Ed V.

 

On Dec 30, 2:50 pm, John Fields <jfie...@austininstruments.com> wrote:

On Tue, 30 Dec 2008 11:32:40 -0800 (PST), edvoge...@gmail.com wrote:
or I guess "bars" odseleniumwould be ok.  I want to reconstruct
Willoughby's discovery of photoconductivity for a science demo.  Any
body in this group know where to purchase small amounts ofselenium?
Yes I know it is a hazardous material and promise to be careful.

---http://www.americanelements.com/se.html

JF  

I was hoping for smaller amounts than they offer.

Thanks,
Ed V.

 

[Chris Jones]

edvogel56@gmail.com wrote:

or I guess "bars" od selenium would be ok. I want to reconstruct
Willoughby's discovery of photoconductivity for a science demo. Any
body in this group know where to purchase small amounts of selenium?
Yes I know it is a hazardous material and promise to be careful.

Thanks!

Ed V.

You could probably find an old selenium rectifier (maybe e-bay) and
disassemble it.

I have found what I think is a selenium-coated sheet of metal on the drum of
a big old (80s) IBM laser printer / photocopier (it was a huge machine and
had a rolled-up store of drum-coating inside the drum and an empty spool,
and every so often it would change its own drum coating). I don't know if
they still use selenium these days or if it is now silicon or something
else, but I bet you could find a discarded laser printer or a cartridge
containing the drum (sometimes in the toner cartridge) at a dump, or in a
skip or similar, especially now that the new cartridges seem to cost more
than the printers in some cases.

Chris