This week has been filled with questions in the lab. Syed and I have continued to work to perfect our process for making titania on aluminum-oxide. On Monday we prepared a titania on alumina with a 500º Celsius calcination temperature. We were slightly halted in our progress because we ran out of aluminum-oxide films.
This week we also spent a lot of time with the XRD. We saw a pattern that may be in line with a cubic structure of pores.
XRD machine in the mining department
We also looked at the photocatalytic properties of titania on a glass substrate, which has been a big part of Syed’s work. For this experiment we keep a piece of titania-coated glass submerged in water. We then hook a cathode and anode to it. A light is shined on the titania and we should see signs of water splitting when an electrical current is given off. After seeing that our surface modification was not completely covering the pores of the alumina substrate, we decided that we should try to multi coat the substrates.
Syed performing the Photocatalysis experiment, AKA hydrogen production
On Wednesday we met with Dr. Knutson and Dr. Rankin. That afternoon I prepared the surface modification and applied the first few coats. On Thursday I prepared a few more coats of the surface modification.
On Thursday afternoon I also prepared samples of our materials for SEM (scanning electron microscope) viewing on Friday morning. The University of Kentucky had just received an FIB (Focused Ion Beam) and SEM machine that can be used for cross sectional analysis of materials but also has an incredibly high resolution image. Syed and I were the first people in the department to get to use the new machine with the help of the SEM tech of course.
On Friday morning, we used the new SEM and finally saw that titania had formed on the samples we had created on Monday. We now know that we have figured out a successful process and we can advance our knowledge of our material. It had become frustrating knowing that our process and efforts had not worked, so knowing that we have now been successful is wonderful. We can now look at new ways to apply titania to real world problems.
This weekend I took a flight lesson at Nexgen Aviation at Lexington International Airport. It’s a rather short drive and it was a great way to get out of the house. It was a totally a new experience, as I have never flown a plane out of such a large controlled airport, being vectored around along with commercial jets. I plan to continue to take flying lessons while I’m here to finish up my private pilot’s license.
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