My experiment worked!

I’m doing a PhD in Chemistry. On World-Wide Day of Science, I had a typical day. I wandered into my lab around 10am and, after checking my emails, set up my experiment.

This involved finding out how a compound I had recently made absorbed light, and how this absorption changed as I altered other properties. It is a long experiment that takes many hours, but the highlight of my day is that it worked! I achieved a good result!

Often, the problem with lab work is that it does not always work. Sometimes you know why, and other times you haven’t a clue. It is this unpredictability that can cause scientific research to take so long. So I got my result, and this can allow me to move on to the next experiment. 


Better solar cells

So what does this result tell me? My research is in the area of solar cells and solar energy. It is important that I find out how my compound absorbs light because it is the essential step in converting sunlight into electricity. Now that I have studied this absorption, I can go onto other experiments and eventually find out if this substance will work well in a solar cell. If the compound looks like it might, I can take it to be tested in a real solar cell.

Many people around the world are looking into better ways of using the sun’s energy to make electricity. My work is just a part of the big effort to obtain an efficient source of renewable energy.

A very over-active teacher & everything stuck

When I was at school, my chemistry lessons involved a very over-active teacher getting excited about chemistry. One day, he lay on one of the lab benches and starting flicking the very edge of the wood with his fingers. He told us he was removing atoms one by one along a line and that he would be there for sixty years if he continued to do so to the end of the bench, because atoms are so small.

It stuck in my head, and everything else he did stuck, too, including the chemistry. I knew from those lessons that it was what I wanted to study. The thing that fascinates me about my subject is that once you know what is going on at the molecular level, you can understand what is happening in front of your eyes.

Chemistry explains how washing-up liquid cleans plates, how re-writable CDs record information, why washing powder makes our clothes whiter than white, and why stainless steel is stainless. I love knowing how things work and being able to understand why it happens – that’s why I love being a chemist.