How can tiny structures in your favorite berry turn sunlight into electricity? On Monday, May 4th, VINSE welcomed students from White County High School to the Blackberry Solar Cell Lab for an interactive dive into solar energy and nanoscience. Students crafted working solar cells using blackberry juice and measured the power their homemade devices could produce.
The visit also gave students a chance to explore the materials at a microscopic level using one of VINSE鈥檚 scanning electron microscopes. With magnification up to 500,000 times, students were able to see nanoscale features tens of thousands of times smaller than a human hair, gaining insight into how these tiny details affect a solar cell’s ability to capture sunlight.
A big thank-you to VINSE NanoGuides Kauryn Datcher, Emily Rouse, Gillian Vansciver, and Madison Walker for making this hands-on learning experience so engaging.
Schools interested in this program can reach out to vinse@vanderbilt.edu聽 to learn more.