Project 1: Cèl·lules Solars amb Química (Solar cells with chemistry)

1. Research group: Superconducting Materials and Large Scale Nanostructures
2. Researcher: Mariona Coll
3. Student: Clara Prats Poch

1. Research group: Solid State Chemistry – Supercritical Fluids and Functional Materials
2. Researcher: Ana María López-Periago
3. Student: Marc Solans Díaz

1. Research group: Superconducting Materials and Large Scale Nanostructures
2. Researcher: Teresa Puig
   
3. Student: David Ramón Llorente

Project 4: Fabricació amb gravador làser d'elèctrodes híbrids de grafè per supercondensadors flexibles (Laser fabrication of hybrid graphene electrodes for supercapacitors)

1. Reserach group: Laser Processing Group
2. Researcher: Ángel Pérez
3. Student: Blanca Gilabert

Project 5: Bio-interfícies i hidrogels supramoleculars: materials biomimètics per a la immunoteràpia contra el càncer (Biointerfaces and supramolecular hydrogels: biomimetic materials for cancer immunotherapy)

1. Research group: Nanomol Group
2. Researcher: Imma Ratera and Judith Guasch
3. Student: Jan Cerro Gómez

The five students could participate in a research project within a research group during 4 weeks. They also received a visit to the Scientific and Technical Services of the Institute (guided by the students from the Argó Programme from the UAB), including a demonstration of our levitating superconducting train. In additon, they could attend three talks about three key research support areas: Technology Transfer (by Alfonso del Rey), Project Managing (by Laura Cabana) and Communication and Outreach (by Anna May). 

On 29 July 2021 the five students presented their final projects: 

• Clara Prats explained her project on preparing sacrifical layers for photovoltaic solar cells. She also prepared a prototype to understand how photovoltaic thin film technolgies work.
• Marc Solans explained his project on the synthesis of MOFs using supercritical CO₂ for different applications, including water remediation. 
• David Ramón explain his project on the synthesis of superconducting materials with different amounts of oxygen in their nanostructure.
• Blanca Gilabert explained her project on the synthesis of graphene oxide electrodes to be used as supercapacitors.
• Jan Cerro explained the two projects he had been working on: hydrogels to mimic lymph nodes to grow T cells for cancer immunotherpay, and hydrogels to functionalize catheters to prevent infectious diseases.  

The research stay was extremely well evaluated by the students, according to the survey that we passed them at the end. Some of the things they said about us: 

• "If I had to stick with something, I would say that what I liked most about my stay at ICMAB was how well I was treated by the researchers and all the staff in general, and how they showed me how they worked."
• "I really liked that the researchers in my research group let me work like if I was one more of them. Also, I was amazed at the high amount of people from different parts of the world."
• "Not only have I learned about the lab techniques used, but also about pre-experimental research and how to react if an experiment does not turn out as expected."

More information:

• Three "Joves i Ciència" doing research in materials science at the ICMAB: superconductors, photovoltaics and MOFs (2019)
• Seven "Joves i Ciència" at the ICMAB labs during this summer! (2018)
• Youth and Science - La Pedrera