51³Ô¹ÏÍø

CPE students and academics visited the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany for a two day research workshop.

PhD students and academics from the CPE visited the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany for a two day workshop where we discussed our research and results.

Having made our way to sunny north Bavaria on the 22^nd May, we were welcomed to FAU Erlangen’s campus in the woods on the outskirts of town. After opening remarks by Christoph Brabec from FAU welcoming us to the workshop, the talks from PhD students from both universities started in earnest. The first session focused on novel materials, and spectroscopic techniques for looking at them. Both the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø and FAU students were looking at similar effects of how charges transport in printed electronic devices, and how novel materials and processing techniques can be used to enhance these. The Q&A sessions were lively; both groups were made up of a mixture of chemists, physicists and engineers who all had unique solutions to common problems.

The evening was spent enjoying typical Bavarian hospitality, with a wide range of beer and wurst on offer at a local bar, which were all enjoyed in moderation leaving us fresh and prepared for the next day’s talk.

On the 23^rd, the session was chaired by 51³Ô¹ÏÍø’s Jenny Nelson, and the talks were more focussed on device physics and industrial scale-up potential. The final talk of the day was by David Worsley from Specific, a company based at Swansea University which collaborates with both FAU and 51³Ô¹ÏÍø to work on industrial applications for printable photovoltaics. The talk focused on using the exciting development in ‘Perovskite-type’ sensitisers for printing solar panels directly onto roofs, and explaining the challenges and methods for taking small scale laboratory prototypes and applying them to large surface areas and fast production methods.

The 51³Ô¹ÏÍø students were then treated to a tour of the facilities at FAU’s Erlangen campus, before our FAU counterparts took us out to dinner at their favourite tapas restaurant in town, where once again the world renowned Bavarian lager was enjoyed responsibly, even a surprise thunder storm couldn’t dampen our spirits.

The FAU-CPE joint workshop was a great opportunity for the collaborators that already work together between the two universities to meet and discuss ideas, especially with other colleagues from their respective departments who otherwise may not have met and whose expertise was greatly appreciated. The FAU students took us out for two great nights in Erlangen, which we certainly look forward to reciprocating when they visit London next summer for the return event.