Hello everyone, my name is Natalie Hernandez and I have been fortunate enough to receive the amazing opportunity of interning at the University of Houston in the Chemistry department. I am in professor Balledelis lab studying electrochemistry.
This summer I am planning to spend time in a hands-on lab studying deeper elements of electrochemistry such as electrodeposition and electrocatalysis. Electrochemistry, which is the overarching subject of this whole lab, is essentially the study of the movement of electrons when reactions occur. When electrons move they create currents that generate electricity. A smaller subject within electrochemistry is electrodeposition. Electrodeposition is a method that is utilized to create metal coatings. The plan for the lab, as of right now, is the electrodeposition of Ru or Rh onto Gold. This will make a very interesting study on electrocatalysis.
On Friday June 3rd, 2022 I flew out of Montrose and arrived in Houston. Ben, another student with the pinhead program, has some family friends in Houston so we stayed here with them that first night. They were beyond kind and I was very fortunate to be able to stay with such great people my first night in a new place.
Saturday June 4th, 2022 was the first day I had been to the University of Houston. The campus is quite big, and in the beginning it was slightly hard to get adjusted to the size and know where everything is. We met with Professor Baldelli and he explained to us our schedule for the next 5-6 weeks. I was also introduced to some of the grad students that will be helping me this summer. I spent the rest of my day moving stuff into the dorms and making it feel a little more like home. We were very fortunate to have been able to stay at the dorms (most colleges only allow attending students to reside in the dorms)
View of Campus
Sunday June 5th, 2022 was essentially a free day. I dedicated this day to exploring the large campus.
On Monday June 6th, 2022 professors from the science department at UH gave us lectures on their research and goals. It was extremely informative and interesting.
Tuesday was also a day for these seminars. I am very grateful for these professors being willing to share their knowledge with us and giving us some of their very valuable time. We also were lucky enough to experience the superconductivity center at UH. Here they spoke and educated us on superconductors. Superconductors are essentially able to conduct electricity through a current with little to no resistance. Low temperatures are required for this to work. The most common superconductor shown was liquid Nitrogen.
Superconductor
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were all full of reading materials to help us better understand the lab. We saw the techniques and things we would be working with and got a good basic understanding of everything going on. We learned that we will be utilizing flame annealing a lot which is essentially adding a very high heat flame onto a surface in order to kill any bacteria and make the surface as clean as possible. We also got to see the lasers in action. Although we don’t know much about the lazers yet, we know the safety precautions and how to read the graphs that are produced.
Lasers
Flame Annealing
Finding Information on Metal’s Surface
I am super excited for this opportunity and I cannot wait to come back here with more knowledge and information on these subjects.
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