For the second time this week, I saw how useful mistakes can be. When I arrived, Jonathan was talking with Abay, pointing at a sheet of numbers in Excel I couldn’t make sense of. Abay asked him, off-hand, why the numbers weren’t what they should have. It was more of a rhetorical question, and I could tell that he wasn’t looking for an answer, but Jonathan told him that he completely forgot a solvent that made up only about 0.5% of the solution. After further examination, Abay came to the conclusion that the results, considering the lack of the solvent, were very, very good and that he should continue to use that solution for future experiments. A mistake ended up lending itself to a more efficient solar cell.
But, just like yesterday, today was a day for waiting. There was only one task, for the most part: coat and seal the units so that they can be exposed to air. In their current state, oxygen would considerably damage the polymer solution on top of each substrate, explaining why the chips can only exist in the near-vacuum boxes in the lab.
The measurements requires to test the efficiency of the cell took four hours and fifty-one minutes, a time frame of which I could not stay the duration. Again, today mainly taught me the virtue of patience, and that it is necessary in any sort of lab work.