Week # 10 – Adrian Nolasco

Well, the last week is finally here, and I am upset this had to eventually end. I wish it was longer. I did learn a lot in the past ten weeks. I didn’t think I would gain so much from this internship, but I am glad that I did. This experience did place me outside of my comfort zone, but it was a good thing. Although the research I did here wasn’t aligned specifically to my major, (Mechanical engineering), I am glad I had the opportunity to experience working in the chemical engineering department. I realized most engineering disciplines overlap, because I was working with electrical components, chemical reactions, designing reactors, etc. So, I am grateful to say that I gained some chemical engineering experience.

 

I am also grateful I had the chance to talk to graduate students and ask them about their experiences in their undergraduate degree, what made them pursue a graduate degree, and how to get one. I also asked about why they decided to pursue a graduate degree, and I just really liked their input. This was one of the things I was looking forward to, guidance from someone who had already had their bachelor’s in engineering.

 

My mentor did a terrific job helping me with this summer research. She was always available when I had questions, and always encouraged me to attempt all the experiments. From day one, I was in the lab, mixing chemicals, measuring mass, etc. I am really grateful I had her as a mentor, and hopefully I can apply the same teaching methods if I ever have a mentee assigned to me.

 

As for grad school, this opportunity really helped me decide if I wanted to do it. I had considered it in the past, because I love learning, and I don’t just want to stop at a bachelor’s level. Once I saw how the grad students work, and what they do? I realized I want to do it too. I want to find something I am interested in and research it. See how it can be improved, changed, studied to help contribute to a bigger problem. So, again this I am grateful for everything and everyone that supported me in this research journey. I also want to thank Dr. Zafar and the faculty at the OURI office for their support in making this experience enjoyable.

 

So thank you for reading, and until next time

 

-Adrian

Week #9 – Adrian Nolasco

One week left of my internship here at Rice University. I have done so much in the last ten weeks. I do wish the internship was longer, because it looks like I won’t be able to finish my research and then I won’t have access to the lab anymore. I did get a lot of research done though, and it’s enough for me to present it.

Most of my week I had spent it finalizing my poster draft, considering the suggestion from my peers, faculty and advisor. I realized that it was difficult to simplify the information on my poster, because I had done so much over the summer. I managed to put almost everything on the poster. The main components, and I got creative and designed my own figures, and plots. That was fun. I learned how to code the scripts and plot them in MATLAB, a computing platform.

With the help of my mentor, I conducted some experiments again to verify the data was accurate,

Conducting the last of electrochemical tests using an electrolyzer

interpreted the data, and finalized it for my poster. Results and conclusions look good. Now it’s just a matter of explaining my research briefly. I am a little unsure about the technical aspects of my research, so next week, I will spend most of my time going over the articles I used for my research to solidify any gaps in my knowledge. As well as practice the elevator speech and attempt to condense all my research into sixty seconds.

I will say I am a bit nervous but also excited to present at the symposium next week.

-Adrian

Week #8 – Adrian Nolasco

As my Rice internship is coming to an end, I am getting closer to finishing up research project. I have read, experimented, and collected almost all of the data needed for my poster presentation, with one or two more experiments before I can call it quits. Though I am looking forward to designing my poster as well.

This week was pretty productive. I did pretty much most of my lab work by myself and my mentor trusted me to conduct tests on solar cells by myself. From watching her setup the solar cell configuration, test the resistance, and connect the alligator clips, and start measuring dark and light measurements under the solar simulator, I thought it was difficult. However, she encouraged me to do it by myself, and next thing you know, I am doing it by myself which was cool. The purpose of the solar cells tests is to figure out which contact on the solar cell has the highest efficiency when it captures light. That solar cell will then be combined with the electrocatalyst Iridium Oxide, which will be responsible for driving the chemical reaction in the electrolyzer.

 

As of writing this blog, I am on my last two steps of my synthesis of Iridium Oxide, the electrocatalyst I will add to the electrolyzer. All I need to do is just heat it to 350 degrees for an hour and

Iridium Oxide (IrOx) after the pretreatment process. Very hard to break, and crystal like.

then calcinate it at 550 degrees for another hour. After this, I will analyze its catalytic activity with a method called LSV (Linear Sweep Voltammetry) which will read the current vs the potential of

the IrOx when we load it into a piece of Nickel foam. The electrocatalyst was very tough to break, and this is when I realized not all research is exhilarating as I thought it was. I spent about an hour and a half trying to break this electrocatalyst carefully and trying to

Iridium Oxide (IrOx) after being washed with deionized water. The electrocatalyst separated from the water since it is denser, and the final step would be to evaporate the water out of it.

conserve most of it. After this, I was on the last step, which was to calcinate it to about 550 degrees Celsius, and then wash it with deionized water to remove any soluble salts.

 

 

After the steps above, I will spray coat the IrOx on a piece of Nickel foam, where I will conduct a series of electrochemical tests to observe the catalytic behavior of my synthesized IrOx. One of the things I did enjoy was to be able to conduct these procedures by myself, and I was able to do it successfully. I actually felt pretty confident in doing these procedures, all thanks to my mentor.

 

Now for the next two weeks, I will dedicate more time for my poster presentation, as well as the finalization of my research. Stay tuned for next week!

 

 

-Adrian

 

 

Week #7 – Adrian Nolasco

Week #7 was troubling. Because of the hurricane that swept through Houston, I wasn’t able to be on campus for the first two days of the week, so I didn’t get to achieve much progress in the lab as I wanted to. The days I was here I spent as much time on campus as possible, since I still don’t have any power at home since Sunday night. So, I have been here in my cubicle/lab enjoying the AC but sometimes it does get too cold, and honestly, I’d prefer to be cold than to be at home with no AC.

The days I did spend in the lab, I continued to synthesize the third iteration of the electrocatalyst, Iridium Oxide. This time I did it without the supervision of my mentor, and I thought it was wise to confirm the measurements with my mentor. As of now, I am currently on step two out five for the synthesis process. Like I mentioned in my previous blog, this will be the third time that I am synthesizing the electrocatalyst. This time I will attempt to extract as much product as possible so I can apply this to the solar cell and assemble everything in the electrolyzer.

SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope)

 

I have asked my mentor what other types of tests I could to on the electrocatalyst powder and so far, I have done XRD (X-ray diffraction) analysis (to measure crystallinity) and LSV (linear sweep voltammetry) to measure the current while the potential between the working electrode and a reference electrode is swept. We did try to use a normal good-old fashioned microscope, but we spent about an hour trying to see how it works, and we could not get any good images of the powder. I am not sure if

An image of the surface of the electrocatalyst, Iridium Oxide

it’s because I don’t know how to operate the instrument or if it’s only useful with specific types of samples. I did ask my mentor for assistance, but she had not used one before as well. At the end of the week, I got to use a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and here is some of the images I collected from using that instrument. It was insane the level of magnification it possesed.

 

As of n0w, there are three weeks left, and I am excited to put together all the research I have collected for a final presentation.

 

– Adrian

Week #6 – Adrian Nolasco

Hi, so it’s week #6. It is a short week, but I spent most of it working in the lab. I must say that I did like that we had a break this week, but I did miss being able to work in the lab. Majority of this week was reading articles, adding final touches to my presentation, synthesizing solutions and much more.

 

 

Carrying (IrOx) to a lab that has a centrifuge

I had mentioned las week that I had accidentally melted my electrocatalyst solution because I had forgotten to remove the plastic cap before I inserted it in the oven. This week I am happy to say that I did not replicate the same mistake. So, my synthesis of the electrocatalyst, Iridium Oxide, was successful after following the steps that were published by scientists. I was happy that my experiment had succeeded and was eager to analyze the products. Although I had succeeded with the synthesis, the experiment yield was not great. I kept losing product mass step after step. I barely had enough to actually use it for the electrolyzer, and my mentor suggested I should recreate the experiment… again, only this time be more proactive about collecting as much product as possible.  She also told me that my work hadn’t gone to waste though, and that I could conduct a set of different tests on the sample I had done. XRD analysis, to measure the crystallinity and scanning electron microscope (SEM) to observe the morphology of the substance. I could also measure the sample with electrochemical tests such as cyclic voltammetry (CV), and Linear Sweep to observe the reactions in the electrocatalyst. These tests would help me better understand how electrocatalysts work, and why Iridium Oxide is the best choice to use in industry. Honestly, I am not upset I have to synthesize the sample a third time, because this time I can learn from my mistakes. Besides, it was fun synthesizing it.

 

So, the second part of my research, I was assisting my mentor designing and testing solar cells. These solar cells were created for the purpose of harvesting solar energy to electrical energy that will propel the chemical reaction that is needed for water splitting. I enjoyed testing the cells with a solar simulator since my mentor and I were looking for a specific trend in the data. My mentor was assembling the solar cell first, and then she had me attempt to do my own cell. I wasn’t

Here is me testing the efficiency of a solar cell that will be assembled with the electrocatalyst and electrolyzer

as confident because I had to be really careful not to touch any of the contacts on the cell, otherwise they would be considered destroyed. In the data, we were looking for measurements with the highest efficiency percentage. We had managed to measure about nineteen percent efficiency, which is good since the cells were still being tested.

 

 

So next week are presentations, and I am looking forward to presenting my research with my peers. My mentor had the idea to present my final presentation to her and her mentor who has spent the past five years studying what I have studied for the past month. Honestly? I am a little bit intimidated but it’s okay. I realized this is the type thing I need to grow not only as a person, but someone who does research. This won’t be the last time I present to an audience who has more knowledge than myself, but my goal is to be confident with my findings and be open to constructive criticism in my presentations. This is it for now and if you’re reading this, I hope you had a great holiday.

 

 

– Adrian

 

Week #5 – Adrian Nolasco

Week #5 has been pretty good. It is hard to believe that I am halfway through my REU experience. I got to spend more time in the lab this week, and it has been great. Although my mentor and I had some struggles and setbacks, I think this week went pretty well. Research is going well, and I am starting to conduct experiments in the lab more independently than before. I am confident with my measurements and procedures in the lab.

I spent more time in the lab halfway through the week, since the first half I spent some time finalizing some CAD drawings/graphic designs for my presentation. I am genuinely excited to present my research to the rest of the REU students. My hopes are that I will try to convey the research I am currently working on and make it simple for the other REU students to understand.

This week I am resuming my work on the electrocatalyst solution I was working from last week. Since my mentor was out of the lab for the most part last week, she had left me a set of instructions on how to continue the synthesis process. I was officially by myself, and for the most part it was okay, and my mentor arrived back from her vacation Wednesday, so we just kept working our experiments.

Synthesis of Iridium Oxide that serves as the electrocatalyst for Proton Exchange Membrane

Thursday came and the final step of my work was to pretreat the electrocatalyst solution. The instructions specified to place it inside an oven at 350 degrees Celsius. My mentor and I had the solution prepared inside a vial with a plastic cap. It didn’t occur to me what happens to plastic at high temperatures, given that the cap of the vial was made of plastic.

Long story short, the plastic cap of the vial melted due to the extreme heat, and it mixed with the electrocatalyst solution I spent a week synthesizing. Great. I had spent a week preparing it. Anyways, we laughed, and I knew how to create the electrocatalyst solution and I just re-did the whole synthesis all over again.

This is the electrocatalyst we melted accidentally because of the plastic cap

I was able to get some data on some of the graphite/nickel foam covered catalysts sheets on Friday. We did an analysis that is called XRD Analysis, that uses x-ray diffraction rays to measure the crystallinity of the electrocatalysts covered sheets. This was exciting since I was finally seeing data since we started experimenting on electrocatalysts and the other set of experiments I have done in the lab.

Representation of how XRD analysis works

It was a good week. I am ecstatic to say that I am starting to collect more data, and hopefull in the next upcoming week, I will be able to see all the components put together and function to create hydrogen gas.

-Adrian

 

Week #4 – Adrian Nolasco

Week #4 has been interesting. My mentor has been out of the lab for a week, and I have been working by myself. She didn’t really assign me much to do in the lab, just do simple measurements and set up some equipment. I have been spending much of my time in my cubicle working on my research presentation. I am looking forward to creating and presenting what I am researching on. Although I have already talked to most of my friends about what it is that I am doing in the lab, presenting it to the whole cohort with diagrams and pictures is definitely going to make my research project make more sense.

 

Before my mentor had left, we were working on synthesizing a catalyst ink by mixing Hydrogen Hexachloroiridiate(IV), Nafion solution, and deionized water. There was an article published by Chinese scientists on synthesizing this catalyst ink, and we were following the step-by-step procedure.

Synthesis of the IrO2 electrocatalyst ink.

Once we mixed the solution with the ingredients, sonicate about an hour or so, and the final step is to let it evaporate at 80 degrees Celsius for five hours…. thing is that water boils at 100 degrees Celsius. So, my mentor and I were puzzled after 5 hours as to why the scientists who conducted this research set the temperature on the hot plate to 80 degrees Celsius. Our catalyst ink wasn’t boiling, and it had been about 8 hours. She suggested they might’ve set the ink to evaporate under a vacuum since the boiling point of a substance decreases as the pressure decreases. She insisted they left that part out in the process because it was implied, they conducted the experiment in a vacuum. So, for the past two days or so I have been trying to boil the water out of our catalyst ink.

 

 

Work in progress model of the electrolyzer using Autodesk Fusion

I have also been working on a 3D design of the electrolyzer that will be used for water splitting. Since I am a mechanical engineer major, I have some experience using CAD software and I thought this was a great opportunity to model the components of the electrolyzer. I plan to display this design in my presentation and also include it in the final poster presentation. It was pretty fun designing the electrolyzer using CAD, and I did show my mentor and her peers and were pretty impressed with my design. I forgot how fun it was to use Fusion. I am also thinking of creating 2D diagram of what happens inside the electrolyzer, but I doubt Fusion would be the suitable program for graphic designing.

On Friday I had the opportunity to go visit a water treatment center. It was pretty interesting, and I liked how the treatment process was structured. The water treatment manager explained how the different facilities worked, and it was intriguing. As he was discussing the different facilities in the water plant,

This was the filtration system at the water treatment plant

I started to think about if there is any resemblance between my major and water treatment. Turns out engineers are responsible for the design and layout of the facility. Since water treatment facilities use membrane and filtration separation, mechanical engineers design the systems to support them. It was a pretty interesting trip. I wouldn’t mind working in the environmental engineering using a mechanical engineering degree.

Overall, it was a pretty interesting week despite the fact that I wasn’t much in the lab. It’s hard to believe that we are already in week five, and halfway through the program. I am excited for what is to come.

– Adrian

Week #3 – Adrian Nolasco

Week #3 is slow but good. I didn’t spend as much time in the lab this week, since most of the materials needed to conduct the experiment were not available yet. So, I spent most of my time in my cubicle, reading articles/structuring my research. I must say, I am not used to sitting for long periods of time, and I decided to take a break and walk around for a bit every now and then. I might bring my camera, because the campus has some nice spots.

 

My mentor asked me to read an article about the synthesis of an electrocatalyst, which is essential for my research project. She asked me to replicate the synthesis in the laboratory, and I wrote down all the steps and procedures the scientists conducted in their own research. I was a little bit nervous, but I successfully synthesized the electrocatalyst, and my mentor was supervising the whole procedure.  Doing lab work is pretty fun. I guess when my friends ask me what I did over the summer, I’ll tell them I was a scientist doing scientist things. I did also tag along with my mentor when to another lab that had really interesting equipment. What she was performing was an analysis called “XRD Analysis” that uses x-ray incident rays to read the crystallization of materials. I have never seen such a sophisticated machine but it looked interesting.

Iridium Oxide (IrO2) The electrocatalyst that we will be applying to the anode
X-ray diffraction (XRD) is a non-destructive technique for analyzing the structure of materials, primarily at the atomic or molecular level.

I gained some insight this week when I was in the lab. I usually expect things to go as planned the first time. Don’t we all? Of course it’s not always like that. My mentor and I had one of our experiments fail, and we spend quite a bit amount of time attempting to figure out why it had failed. As I write this today, we still don’t know what caused it, but we hope we figure it out soon. As for my insight, I realized it’s not only humorous, but interesting when things don’t work out the first time. I enjoyed diagnosing the problem, discussing the potential causes, and what we can do to fix the problem. I know. It seems counter-intuitive to actually like when things don’t go my way, but maybe it’s just the engineering in me. I mean, I’m pretty sure when cars were being designed/built, they didn’t successfully work the first time right? Anyways, I hope this insight will help me throughout my engineering degree. When I don’t understand a concept or material in class, I tend to get frustrated easily, and I forget that is the natural part of being a problem-solver. To sit down and ask yourself, why am I not getting the answer I want?

 

As the week progresses, my research has been growing. I have some ideas that I want to conduct into my poster presentation, Next week I will collect data on that. So, for now, I think that I have made some progress in my research, and I am excited to see what is to co

 

-Adrian

Week #2 – Adrian Nolasco

Week #2 has been pretty good. Although I still feel particularly out of place (I blame you imposter syndrome), I feel a little more confident in my abilities to participate in the research my graduate mentor is conducting with her team. I spent most of this week researching a lot of background information in regard to my project, and I feel pretty good about it. I also learned new things about the ideas and innovations in the context of replacing fossil fuels with greener alternatives. I can now say that I sort of have a mental idea of how I am going to structure my presentation.

 

I went to go visit the library on Wednesday, and it was pretty cool. Sure, I knew libraries existed, but honestly, I have not been much of a bookworm, and I like to stick with digital books/articles. I found a particular book I wanted to read using the Fondren Library database, but they only had the physical book and not the digital article. So, I took this opportunity to go explore the library and learn how to locate the book. The book has been very helpful in aiding my research, and I find it crazy that the book I have was published in the year 2008, and last checked out in the year 2012. Sure, the book is outdated, but I find it astonishing how the research and development during that time is still being applied to my research today. I did struggle to read published articles, since it is my first time doing so, but thanks to the meeting I attended with the REU faculty, I was able to learn a few strategies. I am grateful for their support.

 

The journal club presentation I attended this Thursday was pretty cool. I learned a few things about presenting research to an audience. It made me realize I need to figure out a way to cater my research to a wide range of audience members. Some people will have STEM backgrounds, others won’t. I learned about designing my presentation my own unique way, and not relying on templates. Less text, and attractive images are the way to go as well. All these things I will definitely take into consideration when creating my presentation.

 

The book “Light, Water, Hydrogen: The Solar Generation of Hydrogen by Water Photoelectrolysis” focuses on solar hydrogen production through water photo-splitting (photoelectrolysis) using semiconductor photoanodes.                                   

 

 

I’d say eighty percent of my time here at Rice is being spent in the lab. Which I think is a good thing, since I do most of my research at my cubicle or at home. I do shadow my mentor, but she also lets me do some of the experiments in the lab. I do get nervous sometimes because she quizzes me on my chemistry background, and I suck at doing mental arithmetic sometimes. Sure, I can solve integrals and derivatives but when it comes to adding two-digit numbers? I’m fried.  However, my mentor is very supportive when I want to learn new things. She encourages me to ask questions, use the lab equipment, engages my critical thinking and much more. She assigned me to read an article about creating a catalyst solution that will be sprayed on nickel foam. She said I would do the whole process myself and she would just supervise me, so I’m looking forward to that, but I am also nervous.

Overall, it’s been second week has been great. I already started thinking about how I will miss this experience here. I am looking forward for what is to come.

-Adrian

Week # 1 – Adrian Nolasco

The first week of my internship went pretty well. I will say that I am a bit overwhelmed with the amount of research that my mentor is doing. She is also working with other graduate students using technology that has the potential to replace traditional methods of fuel to greener options. I have been a part of their meetings and research for the past three days, and I was just watching them work in the laboratory. As the days went by, I managed to understand better what they were trying to do, and it is pretty interesting!

 

So, I have been working with chemical engineering students and its pretty cool. Personally, I am a mechanical engineering student, and I am fascinated with statics, classical mechanics, physics etc., and I have never considered of even bothered to research what chemical engineers do. This REU experience however has showed me some of the stuff chemical engineers do in their daily work and it’s pretty cool. The lab is exhilarating. So many interesting instruments and chemicals that I have only seen in textbooks and laboratory manuals but never actually used.

 

On Wednesday, May 29th I helped to make a catalyst. I did understand what a catalyst is since I have taken chemistry in my undergraduate experience, and I was just ecstatic to understand something I had learned in my chemistry classes. I had never made a catalyst before, so that is one thing I can cross from my bucket list.

This has been a good first week, and I am ready to slowly begin to contribute to the project as an undergraduate student.

-Adrian