Question: What made you pursue the science career measuring Zinc Oxide?

Kieren Bradley answered on 9 Mar 2014:

I have always been fascinated with solar panels; my home has had solar panels in the garden since I was born, so I was always interested in how they work. At university I did a year in Portsmouth at a company who make electrochemical gas sensors. Essentially gas comes into the sensor, goes through a chemical reaction which generates a small electrical current. This led to my interest in electrochemistry, and I decided that once I was on my PhD I would do something that involved electrochemistry and solar panels; of the two projects being offered that combined the two I decided that I liked the idea of the zinc oxide nanorods as they also had an odd effect that if you grow them the right size you might be able to trap light within them. I’m not too fussed about the material itself, being quite happy to measure other materials such as indium gallium nitride (InGaN) but Zinc Oxide does have the advantage that it is much easier and cheaper to make.