Research links between Chalmers and Addis Ababa University

Assistant professor Ergang Wang’s research group at Chalmers together with Wendimagegn Mammo’s group in Ethiopia will collaborate on the synthesis and characterization of graphene-polymer composites for solar cell applications in a project funded by the Swedish Research Council through the motto Swedish Research Links. The role of the polymer is to harvest the energy from the sun while the graphene is the conductive part of the solar cell. Today, the most commonly used materials for conduction are fullerenes which, like graphene, are a kind of crystallized carbon. The problem with fullerenes, however, is that they are expensive and also are not stable enough to work efficiently in solar cells.

"Lots of effort is made today by scientists to replace the fullerenes with some other materials. We are looking into graphene as a possible successor," says professor Mammo.

The project is a result of 20 years of collaboration between the two universities. It all started in the mid-1990s’ with an International Science Programme (ISP)-funded project for research collaboration and exchange of students and scientists between Sweden and Ethiopia where Chalmers along with other Swedish universities welcomed Ethiopian exchange students. Back in 1997, Mammo himself spent his sabbatical year at Chalmers as a post-doctoral fellow and worked with Prof. Mats Andersson. The collaboration has since grown stronger over the years and today several Ethiopian students have spent parts of their PhD studies within the field of polymer technology at Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and a few Chalmers researchers have been to Addis Ababa for research visits.

"The collaboration with Chalmers has helped us a lot in enriching our chemistry research at Addis Ababa University and in breaking the isolation. We have also been able to jointly publish many scientific articles in reputed journals. Besides training PhD-students, we have arranged for them to gain the international experience and exposure they need for their intellectual development," says professor Mammo.  

Right now one of professor Mammo’s PhD students is working together with Ergang Wang’s group and when he leaves in May there is a plan to bring one mode student to Chalmers. In February this year, Ergang Wang visited the Chemistry Department of the Addis Ababa University and got a positive surprise when he saw their research environment.

"I knew that there are very competent chemists, but it turned out that their laboratory environment also holds high standards. Thanks to the sustained support by ISP and the big investment by the Ethiopian Government on expanding graduate studies, they have acquired some high-end research-grade equipment," he says.

For Ergang Wang, it is important to highlight that this collaboration is beneficial for both institutions.

"They have very good and hard-working students who are adept in chemical synthesis. The facilities at Chalmers are excellent and the students thrive in the short time they stay in our laboratories. This has contributed a lot in the development of new polymers we design for a variety of applications. Now we are very excited about this new graphene collaboration and hold very high expectations of it," he says.