Materials Research

News

• 2024-09-20

  Materials research for the future

  Materials research at Karlstad University has a long tradition. With strong external funding and close collaboration with the industrial and regional actors, they are now establishing the Materials Research Group, MRG@KaU, taking further steps to contribute through basic and applied research to a sustainable future in material science.

  – In total, approximately 40 active researchers are involved in the Materials Research Group at Karlstad university, says Ellen Moons, Professor of Physics and one of the coordinators of the research environment. A strong interdisciplinary collaboration has developed within the team, with research activities ranging from basic materials research to applied research and industrial applications, as well as between experiments and modelling on length scales from nanometer to micrometer and to the macro-scale level.

• 2024-08-16

  Eco-friendly and affordable battery

  A battery made from zinc and lignin that can be used over 8000 times. This has been developed by researchers at Karlstad University, Linköping University and Chalmers with a vision to provide a cheap and sustainable battery solution for countries where access to electricity is limited. The study has been published in the journal Energy & Environmental Materials.

  – Solar panels have become relatively inexpensive, and many people in low-income countries have adopted them. However, near the equator, the sun sets at around 6 PM, leaving households and businesses without electricity. The hope is that this battery technology, even with lower performance than the expensive Li-ion batteries, will eventually offer a solution for these situations, says Reverant Crispin, professor of organic electronics at Linköping University.
  

• 2024-05-08

  International research workshop on polymers

  Researchers from several European countries gathered for a two-day workshop at Karlstad University. The general theme was research on polymers and their application for organic solar cells and energy storage.

  – There are several purposes behind the workshop, says Jan van Stam, Professor of Physical Chemistry. We want to learn from other experts, expand our networks and make new contacts, as well as putting Karlstad University on the map in this field of research. We who organised the workshop are part of the research group SOLA at Karlstad University, and it includes researchers from materials physics, computational materials research and physical chemistry. SOLA is also part of the faculty’s focus area Materials Research.
   

• 2023-12-06

  From Uruguay to Karlstad University

  Patricia Saenz Mendez came to Karlstad University in 2020, in the midst on the pandemic. A rather strange start, but as a newly appointed docent in chemistry, she feels that she is in exactly the right place.

  - I completed my PhD in Uruguay and after that I ended up in Sweden. Before Karlstad University, I was a postdoc at KTH and Örebro University, as well as at University of Gothenburg for a short period, says Patricia Saenz Mendez. I didn’t know that much about Karlstad and the university here when I saw the vacancy, but I realised that it was a subject environment with a specialisation that would suit me perfectly.

• 2023-05-22

  Physics research receives positive response in review by the Swedish Research Council

  The Swedish Research Council has conducted a review of physics research conducted at Karlstad University and 11 other higher education institutions. An independent evaluation panel, consisting of 14 international experts, has evaluated the research based on its scientific quality and societal impact.

  - I represent the physics discipline here at Karlstad University and I feel that the Swedish Research Council’s review was a positive experience both in terms of the process and the outcome, says Marcus Berg, Professor of Physics. The review had the explicit purpose of evaluating Swedish physics research as a whole and in relation to other countries, not handing out “relative grades” within Sweden.

• 2023-01-03

  Self-healing solar cells recover at night

  Perovskite solar cells degrade when exposed to sunlight, which results in decreasing performance over time. A new research project will examine how such solar cells could recover and self-repair at night.

  – Electronic components, such as solar cells and LEDs, are made from semiconductor materials, says Ellen Moons, professor of Physics. Such materials form the basis of all electronics, computers, cell phones and screens. Halide perovskite is a new type of semiconductor, which has gained a lot of attention for reaching high performance as solar cell material — despite being simple and energy efficient to manufacture.