Hello everyone!

 

This week has been a bit shorter, but productive!

Monday – I hand-sprayed gold and copper nanocube catalysts I synthesized the prior week onto a Gas Diffusion Layer (GDL), essentially a paper made of carbon. I was nervous about the “pooling” effect and how it could hinder my results, so I sprayed as evenly as possible. Then, I used a small piece of the GDL to run a flow cell experiment, collected 5 samples at different current densities, and prepared them for NMR testing.

Tuesday – This day I went to the OURI workshop and weekly meeting, which I always enjoy. I learned plenty about mindset in research, which applied to other mental capacities as well. I was also able to analyze my results from Monday… turns out my results did not turn out as planned! From the literature, I predicted there would be a higher product amount of acetic acid, instead the amount was less than the standard silver and copper nanocubes. Luckily, my mentor suggested a few other transition metals to try from the literature as well, and maybe even mixing them as catalysts. However, I’m still going to research other metals, so I don’t get stuck hopefully.

Wednesday – Happy Juneteenth! No lab this day.

Thursday – I was unable to make it to the lab today because of unexpected costly car issues, so I plan on taking the Metro Bus soon. It was a bummer to not get to the lab since my mentor left this day for a few weeks to visit back home, but I continued to stay in contact with him and worked on readings and the presentation draft assignment.

Friday – Luckily and gratefully, I was able to have transportation to attend the field trip this morning. I had lots of fun on this trip, and very informative as to a future career I may want to have. Dr. Cushing, Mr. John, and the bus driver were kind and professional. The chemistry science behind water treatment and disinfecting I found to be interesting and very applicable. It makes it hard for me to choose between a water plant and NASA if they don’t have any chemistry jobs! Once we got back to campus, I worked on the presentation draft and more readings.

Overall, I’d rate my week 6/10. However, I don’t want to let my personal life get in the way of my research, so I will be looking for other ways to destress!

 

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Thank you for reading!

Chloe