Week 5 has been way freer than previous weeks, this week was the last week with college prep seminars meaning that we are free of homework for the last 2 weeks. Furthermore, in the lab, Arthur and I were left freely around getting assigned tasks by Taehee and doing them with the previous knowledge gained, however, a little problem that appear early on the week was that the Nafion coded copper foils were really hard to punch them since the solution was really faded on the paper, so we continued the project with ALF3 at a ratio of 5:12 5:30 and uncoded copper foil.
On Monday were told in the morning after a seminar we had with a San Diego jury that we couldn’t start doing cells since the Nafion experiment went wrong, so I went with my lab partner Arthur to UTC and we went to watch the new minions movie and then I hang out with 2 of my roommates and we went to buy glasses at Ross.
Tuesday was a great day in the lab, we were told to arrive at 10:00 am in the lab and we did, we were literally alone the entire time, and when were assigned to do two AlF3 solutions, with different concentrations, we started measuring the chemical concentration after that we mixed it with the solute being 2.5% NMP and I used a vortex mixer to make the solution homogeneous faster, well after making the solution we got copper and used a doctor blade and fully spread the solution on the copper so in it could be way easier to punch them after drying, the crazy thing about that day is that we got to use the vacuum ovens by ourselves and the entire experience of being alone in a lab full of hazardous chemicals and knowing what to do was the best experience I have had so far in this program.
On Wednesday we punched the copper and successfully got the 2 solutions fully homogeneous, however, we needed to heat them for about 7 hours so they would be able to be placed on the glove box, so we had a 30-minute chat about a presentation we need to do for the last day of the program, so after that me and my lab partner head to the library to set everything up and have a clear image of how the presentation will look like.
Thursday we were assigned to do the cells so I and my lab partner arrived at the lab at 10 am literally we were alone in the entire lab using a glove box without any supervision and that was something amazing, we transferred the punched coded copper into the glove box and then we proceeded to create the anode lithium cells, after making the cells we left them inside the glove box and our mentor took them out later, that day we went to the library as well to finish part of the presentation, but we still need some data and analysis of the cells.
Friday our mentor thought us how to disassemble the cells since we are going to the SEM next week, it was a really quick review you literally get some small metals claws and then take down the cathode apart and then you take out the copper and throw the other part, what we noticed was that the coded part was way stronger than copper alone since the lithium on the uncoded one was tearing off it an from the 5:30 was extremely dense into the copper and there was no deformation other than it was a bit off center.
Saturday I went to the birch aquarium at Scripps, and Sunday I am going to DelMar fair grounds.
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