“How do I charge my cell phone battery most gently?”, “How does the fire brigade extinguish the fire of an electric car?”, “What does the energy transition have to do with batteries at all?”
These and other questions 60 high school students asked three HIU PhD students on February 18, 2020. Two tenth grades of the Johann Vanotti High School in Ehingen were hosted guests at the Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU) to learn about new batteries and battery concepts.
Managing Director of the Helmholtz Institute Ulm, Dr. Heribert Wilhelm opened the visit with a short lecture on “the Role of Batteries in times of Climate Change”. Afterwards, the three HIU PhD students Linda Bolay (DLR), Mathias Künzel and Dominik Steinle answered questions from the students.
Why battery research?
Because it is not always available for immediate use, energy from renewable resources such as the wind and sun needs to be stored. Similarly, electric cars need intermediate storage of the electrical energy required for driving. Offering an efficient solution to this problem are batteries that temporarily store and release electrical energy with very little energy loss. The more lossless these batteries work, the more important their role in the energy transition.
Aim of the Helmholtz Institute Ulm
A student asks directly: “What is the long-term goal?” Well: The Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU) charges itself with the task of pursuing fundamental questions in electrochemical energy storage as a platform for creating vital new material and cell concepts. The primary aim of the HIU is to develop sustainable, next-generation battery technologies, in full, to develop electrochemical energy storage with more capacity and greater efficiency that is at the same time lighter, longer lasting, safer and cheaper than conventional technologies.
After the lectures and workshops, the 60 high school students were allowed to visit the institute’s physics and chemistry laboratories. Here they were able to experience what everyday life looks like for a battery researcher.
Invitation: For a day battery researcher
Girls’ Day: March 26, 2020
Would you also like to get a taste of the profession of a battery researcher? The Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU) offers regular insights into its interior. Around 120 physicists and chemists at HIU are researching future batteries for electric cars, laptops and smartphones.
In their laboratories, they show exactly how they do this: workshop participants are allowed to build their own batteries and work on glove boxes under protective gas. Visitors can examine various materials on a scanning electron microscope and take pictures of them.
The offer is aimed at students from grade 8 to 11. More information on this years’s Girls’ Day at Ulm University is available here:
Register for Girls’ Day 2020 at HIU
March 26th, 2020