Long night of Sciences at HZB: Experience science up close!
Can you make solar cells from fruit tea? You can find out how at the Long Night of the Sciences. © HZB/P. Dera
Come by and be surprised: Take a look at the accelerator BESSY II during the Long Night of the Sciences. © HZB/M. Setzpfandt
Important info: At the HZB, FFP2 masks are mandatory indoors from the age of 14 during this event.
How can solar cells be produced even more efficiently? Why is "green" hydrogen so important for our future? Why does Berlin need an accelerator to screen materials? The answers are available at the Long Night of the Sciences. On July 2, 2022, 5 p.m. to midnight, HZB opens its doors at the Adlershof site and invites young and old to experiment.
Our researchers will discover new energy materials and develop technologies for a climate-neutral energy supply - a topic that is more topical than ever. Ask us what you always wanted to know about renewable energy. There will be opportunities to do so at the booths or at the lectures on the "Road of Energy" (located at Kekuléstraße) as well as at the panel discussion "No energy transition without hydrogen" at 7 pm in the BESSY lecture hall. We are looking forward to the dialog with you!
We cordially invite you to visit our electron accelerator BESSY II. It provides intense light to develop new solar cells, batteries or catalysts. On a tour through the accelerator you will find out why electrons race in circles at almost the speed of light. Children can participate in a scavenger hunt through the accelerator or experiment in the school lab.
About 100 meters away, at our location in Kekuléstraße 5, photovoltaics experts are setting up an outdoor energy street. There you can experience what working in the lab is like. Among other things, you can build your own solar cells from toothpaste and fruit tea or come to the "Temple of Solar Cells".
Programme
Further information and the exact times of the programme offers mentioned here can be found on our website:
- Programme around BESSY II: Albert-Einstein-Str. 15
- Programme Road of Energy: Kekuléstr. 5
- Info about tickets
- website Long Night of Sciences
Please bring an FFP2 mask for your visit to HZB. Due to the pandemic and construction measures, the number of visitors in the BESSY building will be limited. We ask for your understanding if there are waiting times in front of the building. Thank you very much!
- 83 pupils at Girls'Day at HZBOn 23 April 2026, the annual Girl’s Day took place, giving pupils an insight into various career paths in the fields of science and technology. 83 pupils visited the Adlershof and Wannsee sites and enjoyed a day full of exciting experiments.
- Electrocatalysts: New model for charge separation at the solid-liquid interfaceHydrogen is at the heart of the transition to carbon neutrality, as both an energy carrier and a reagent for green chemistry. However, large-scale production of hydrogen via electrolysis, as well as the production of many other chemical products, requires significantly cheaper and more efficient catalysts. A precise understanding of the electrochemical processes that take place at the interface between the solid catalyst and the liquid medium is highly useful for developing better electrocatalysts. In the journal Nature Communications, an European team has now presented a powerful model that determines charge separation at the interface, the formation of the electric double layer and local electric potential variations, and the resulting influence on the catalytic activity.
- Berlin Battery Lab: BAM, HZB and HU are conducting joint research on sodium batteriesThe Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) today officially inaugurated the Berlin Battery Lab (BBL). At this new research platform, BAM, HZB and HU jointly develop and test resource-efficient battery technologies with a focus on sodium-based systems. Together, they develop new materials, investigate innovative cell chemistries, and produce battery prototypes. The research infrastructure of the Berlin Battery Lab is also open to external partners from science and industry and is designed to accelerate the transfer from research to application.