  To increase public awareness of theoretical materials physics, a small group
of high school students is invited to participate actively in a current
research projects at Chalmers University of Technology. The Chalmers research
group explores methods for filtrating hazardous and otherwise unwanted
molecules from drinking water, for example by adsorption in active carbon
filters. In this project, the students use graphene as an idealized model for
active carbon, and estimate the energy of adsorption of the methylbenzene
toluene on graphene with the help of the atomic-scale calculational method
density functional theory. In this process the students develop an insight into
applied quantum physics, a topic usually not taught at this educational level,
and gain some experience with a couple of state-of-the-art calculational tools
in materials research.
