Congratulations to Nicklas on His Licentiate Thesis Defence

The thesis entitled “A finite volume scheme for a conservative hydrodynamic limit of the Kac-Blume-Capel model – Convergence, parameter stability and simulation”

Nicklas’ research focuses on morphology formation in ternary mixtures for organic photovoltaic applications. In simple terms, he studies how two interacting phases and a solvent self-organize into complex three-dimensional structures that influence how efficiently solar cells generate and transport electrical charge.

The work combines mathematical analysis, numerical methods, and high-performance computing to better understand these complex systems. As part of the research, Nicklas proved the convergence of a semi-discrete finite volume scheme, demonstrated its stability with respect to temperature variations, and developed a GPU-based 3D simulation framework for efficient approximation of the underlying nonlinear and nonlocal PDE system.

Understanding morphology formation is highly relevant for improving the performance of organic photovoltaics, since the key structural features that influence efficiency are still not fully understood. By improving our ability to model and simulate these structures, this research contributes to the development of more efficient solar energy technologies.

Looking ahead, Nicklas’ future work will include incorporating boundary evaporation effects, analyzing fully discrete schemes, and further exploring the geometric properties of the resulting morphologies.

Congratulations, Nicklas, on this important milestone!