Last autumn, two students in upper secondary school exchanged their regular classroom for an afternoon workshop in the solar cell laboratory at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology. With the guidance of doctoral student Mathis Mortensen Brette, they investigated organic solar cells.
Photographer: Sandra Nayeri
The workshop, which was made for the second year in a row, has been initiated by the students' teacher at the international programme, Hvitfeldska Upper Secondary School. Ha contacted the research group leader Ergang Wang, who asked if Mathis Mortensen Brette could take care of the students, which he was happy to do.
Mathis Mortensen Brette prepared an afternoon workshop in the laboratory. The students had to measure how power and volts in organic solar cells are affected by different parameters. They found out how the distance between the light source and the solar cell and specific wavelengths of light affect the solar cell. The laboratory's equipment was at their disposal, including a solar simulator.
“The workshop gave them a greater understanding of how solar cells work. The organic solar cells that we use can be printed on a surface, so the students could really see what a solar cell is”, explains Mathis Mortensen Brette
Photographer: Mathis Mortensen Brette
The students were challenged with different variables that they were given the task of solving. When they added different parameters to the surveys, they had to predict what they thought would happen. Would the result be lower or higher? Then they got to try their thesis. Sometimes it was correct and sometimes the results offered surprises. Just like it can be in a laboratory.
“On several occasions, spontaneous wows could be heard in the laboratory. When I explained why it didn't turn out as they had thought, the response was, aha then we understand. I got the impression that they learned a lot of new things during this afternoon," says Mathis Mortensen Brette.
Good way to raise interest for chemical engineering
Arranging the visit was neither difficult nor complicated. For Mathis, it was about setting aside an afternoon and some time for preparations. Based on what the students said to him during the visit, they seem to have found it interesting. He believes that this type of activity is a good way to get more young people interested in science, and in this case specifically chemistry and chemical engineering.
“When I was in this age, I would have loved to come to a laboratory like this," concludes Mathis Mortensen Brette.
The Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering collaborates regularly with schools. The workshop in the solar cell lab is an example of activities we do to help more young people discover how exciting and rewarding a future as a chemical engineer could be.
Read more here (webpage in Swedish) Kemi – aktiviteter och material för skolan | Chalmers