After some posting difficulties, I bring to you a double feature post.
This week has been a significant learning experience. I've run into several problems during the course of my project, and that doesn't help the already shortening schedule. Of course a little bit of patience and a lot of help from my grad student goes a long way.
After running the Cd:Se ratio reactions, we concluded that it didn't make a huge difference. Instead, we want to up the Selenium side of the ratio now. As before, we still want to find the best concentration for making quantum dots so that we get more than 3g of dots from a 2L reaction (that's a ridiculously small amount). The 10x concentration reaction didn't work, but we'll try 5x on Monday.
Also on the agenda this week was building, testing, and photographing transistors. Everything went fine until the testing because all of the semiconductor analyzers are at least 20-30 years old and enjoy crashing frequently. We did discover that a 2 molar CdSe spun film cracks, so the concentration has to be lower to build solar cells.
While recovering dots that spun off of the films this week, we found that the aluminum foil that's been used to collect the dots has been reacting with them. Why's that a problem? When it reacts, it makes the dots impossible to clean (we haven't tried everything, but it seems like a lost cause).
The more positive parts of this week were:
1. After chlorination, I got some new dots ready to spin a whole series of 24 films next week. (that series will be about finding the best process of making a film.)
2. I've started working on a presentation that will become my poster.
To be honest, I really wish that next week wasn't my last. I was talking to one of the grad students in the lab and we agreed that it barely felt like I was there for a month. Just another reason to make my last week the best one yet!
-Alec
This week has been a significant learning experience. I've run into several problems during the course of my project, and that doesn't help the already shortening schedule. Of course a little bit of patience and a lot of help from my grad student goes a long way.
After running the Cd:Se ratio reactions, we concluded that it didn't make a huge difference. Instead, we want to up the Selenium side of the ratio now. As before, we still want to find the best concentration for making quantum dots so that we get more than 3g of dots from a 2L reaction (that's a ridiculously small amount). The 10x concentration reaction didn't work, but we'll try 5x on Monday.
Also on the agenda this week was building, testing, and photographing transistors. Everything went fine until the testing because all of the semiconductor analyzers are at least 20-30 years old and enjoy crashing frequently. We did discover that a 2 molar CdSe spun film cracks, so the concentration has to be lower to build solar cells.
While recovering dots that spun off of the films this week, we found that the aluminum foil that's been used to collect the dots has been reacting with them. Why's that a problem? When it reacts, it makes the dots impossible to clean (we haven't tried everything, but it seems like a lost cause).
The more positive parts of this week were:
1. After chlorination, I got some new dots ready to spin a whole series of 24 films next week. (that series will be about finding the best process of making a film.)
2. I've started working on a presentation that will become my poster.
To be honest, I really wish that next week wasn't my last. I was talking to one of the grad students in the lab and we agreed that it barely felt like I was there for a month. Just another reason to make my last week the best one yet!
-Alec
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