Last week we started experimenting! Up until this point we had been busy making our PNEDs(photothermal nanomaterial enabled desiccants) so I was very excited to start getting data. What we have seen so far is that the carbon black has not adsorbed as much water as the silica. This problem seems to be from the nano particles blocking the water adsorption. Oh well, we still have to see how the gold rods and cubes do.

The experiments take 10 hours to complete, most of that time is a lot of waiting. Since I am right behind Roberto’s lab he keeps me company.

The second part of our experiment is desorbtion which is done under a sun lamp, in Roberto’s lab. To prevent a sun burn I have to be all suited up.

At the end of this week we finally finished making nano particles(our babies are born!)

The first of the last steps was to remove as much junk off of the top of the NP(nano particles) as I could. This took about a day of pipetteing.

When I collected as much of the liquid as I could they were all placed in the oven at 105 degrees to evaporate off the rest of the liquid.

When the particles where dry we took them out of the oven. The gold rods turned blue/green this is called blue shift theory and it means that they increased in energy!

They came a couple days late but boy am I so proud of them!

Also: Yes I am enjoying Jessica Jones, now that I’ve gotten through the second episode which was so dull!

Shaking nano particles + APTES + SiO_2 for optimal coating, using my own wrapping design. During this process we had to remove a bottle to see if they had been shaken sufficiently, which was awfully like trying to birth a baby. The hard part was getting it back in the wrapping, a job no doctor(or student) ever wants to do with a baby.

Beautiful view while waiting for the materials to be born

Getting the solar lamp set up for when we need to dry out the desiccant.

Moving the nest and getting it ready, got to have the humidity just right!

Parting note; Yes I have been watching Jessica Jones season 3

This week is the half way point in our REU program and I feel like I have only just started to get comfortable with the lab. This week we are finishing up making our gold rod nano particles.
Finishing up making gold nano particals

It’s a good thing we had the day off for Fourth of July because I don’t know when I was going to squeeze in my homework assignment(the power point is due Monday.) We will start our experiments next week and to keep on schedule we have started working on the weekend and poor Anjali is working through the holiday.

This last Wednesday we went on a field trip to Scottsdale Water Campus. It was very interesting and surprisingly pretty. For those who don’t know, the city of Scottsdale is to the east of Phoenix and it is very wealthy.

The entrance to the water treatment plant.

We started the tour in a freezing cold room and got the talk about how great they are at what they do. I have to say, I had a migraine and therefore was not as impressed as I should have been. Apparently the site is the world’s largest Vasdose Zone groundwater-recharge well field, looking back that is pretty cool.

We were given ear buds and machines so we could hear the tour guild better in the loud rooms(did I say Scottsdale is rich?) then we finally got to leave the frigid cold!
Rows and rows of RO filters

The inside of one of the massive RO filters

The beautiful McDowell Mountains

Sadly mentor’s official last day was Friday.

Because of that this third week was spent helping her finish her projects, clean up her work space plus my own nano bubbles. I also made a how to video for our Moleaer nanobubble machine and an O&M Manual.

Check out the video out here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GfFAyZ0xa_7LHYhMLiKjGv-tPAdBeN_j/view?usp=sharing

I wish I had had more time with it, but I only had three days to pull it together.
I am so excited to start working with Anjali next week!