Sputtering with the team

Sputtering’ it says on the door. What on earth goes on in this lab at Röntgenring? “Sputtering, that was really good,” says Verena Kleiner. Her fellow-student Christopher Brandt explains what it is all about. The students learn how to deposit an ultra-thin layer of silver on various objects. Then can these objects be better examined under an electron microscope.

Verena and Christopher are studying Technology of Functional Materials, abbreviated to TecFun. Functional materials are important in all sorts of fields: display technology, bio-materials and polymer materials, regenerative energy and medicine.

Transmittance of windows

In Würzburg, scientists are developing a technology that allows adjustment of the transmittance of windows. These so-called electrochromic windows can be used to manage the climate in buildings thus saving energy. Students gain an insight into the development of these new materials in their course work and during practical classes.

For example, at the Würzburg Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research which is participating in the course programme, research is conducted in piezo materials – materials which generate electrical current when exposed to mechanical pressure or which change shape when they are put under current.

What might that be good for? “It means that the mechanical forces which occur when an aeroplane is in the air can be converted to electrical signals which can then be measured. In this way material fatigue or damage to the plane’s surface can be recorded,” Manuel Röder, another student of the Technology of Functional Materials explains.

“We would do the same again”

Manuel and Verena were two of the first students to enrol in TecFun, in what was then a brand new course of study. “We would certainly do the same again”, they both say and Christopher agrees. What do they like best about the course? “The friendly atmosphere, working in small groups. We are real team workers and do a lot together outside the university as well.”

The students are extremely happy with the way their work is supervised. Coordinators ensure that the organisational side runs smoothly. They see to it that the planning of the various participants in the course, the University itself, the Fraunhofer Institute, the South-German Plastics Centre, SKZ, and the Centre for Applied Energy Research is coordinated.

Regenerative Medicine

A further asset for TecFuns is the new subject which has been added to the course, Regenerative Medicine. What does Medicine have to do with materials? More than you would think. After all, the surfaces of artificial joints and other implants have to be such that the human organism does not reject them. Equally exciting are carrier substances containing medicines which they release in the human body.