Chemical Industry Fund supports university teaching: TU Kaiserslautern receives 21,000 euros

The Technical University of Kaiserslautern (TUK) is one of 12 universities and 5 colleges receiving financial support from the Chemical Industry Fund (FCI) this year. A total of almost 350,000 euros is available for the 17 teaching projects in chemistry degree programmes. The FCI announced this recently. TUK will use the approximately 21,000 euros granted to promote the scientific training of chemistry students in the field of electrochemistry.

Electrochemistry is in demand - especially in view of the fact that it enables fuel cells as alternative drives, battery storage as a motor for the energy transition and new synthesis processes. "That's why it's all the more important that this discipline of the future is more firmly anchored in chemistry studies," explains junior professor Jennifer Meyer, who teaches physical chemistry at TUK. Together with her colleague, private lecturer Christoph Riehn, she will use the funding for a teaching project that strengthens electrochemistry in the entire course of study in physical chemistry.

"The focus is on getting students to deal with modern electrochemical analytical methods both theoretically in lectures and in laboratory practicals," says Meyer. "For this, thanks to the funding, we can invest in a new measuring device for cyclic voltammetry, which can be used to investigate electrochemical processes." This measuring technique will be integrated into the practical training in the third Bachelor's semester in the form of a basic experiment, so that students can understand how electrochemical reactions take place.

"In the following semesters, we then teach more complex issues step by step. In this way, we want to ensure that electrochemical analysis becomes an integral, self-evident and beneficial part of the degree programme," Riehn concludes.

About the Chemical Industry Fund
The Chemical Industry Fund was founded in 1950 and is the funding organisation of the German Chemical Industry Association. In 2022, it will provide about 12.9 million euros for basic research, young scientists and chemistry education in schools. The condition for the fund's support is that the teaching institutions also provide their own money amounting to 20 percent of the funding sum.

Further information at www.vci.de/fonds.

Questions answered:

Junior Prof. Dr. Jennifer Meyer
Tel. 0631 205 4211
E-mail: jmeyer(at)chemie.uni-kl.de

PD Dr. Christoph Riehn
Phone: 0631 205 4859
E-mail: riehn(at)chemie.uni-kl.de