Hello! Last week, I hoped to start samples by the end of this week, but I ended up working on a few other projects as well. This week ended up being pretty busy!
Lab Work
Plate I made for the microscope filter box. The tiny screws are sitting on the black plastic. (So I don’t lose them)
Although I didn’t get to test new samples with the Raman spectrometer, I worked on about three projects at once this week. I spent time aligning the spectrometer, fixing the microscope, and glass-blowing. For the spectrometer, most of the building is looking for certain equipment. Navodha, the graduate student working with the Raman spectrometer, helped me find a filter and a plano-convex lens. The filter only allows the sample’s light through, then the plano-convex lens collects and condenses the light before passing it to the spectrometer. After taking some time to align the laser, I was finally finished.
As for the microscope, I finished drilling the plate for the filter box and took it to the building next door for the excess to be cut off. I cleaned the metal, then looked for odd 80 screws and washers that fit. Once I figure out how to keep the filters from sticking, I can put everything back together for use.
This is underneath the microscope. I outlined in purple where the plate will go.
The straight seal I made. The image quality may not be good enough to see.
Otherwise, I spent most of Wednesday learning more about glass-blowing. I worked on making a straight seal, connecting a thinner tube to a wider one. The outside looked fairly straight, but the inside of the tube was somewhat blocked. Overall, I think it went pretty well for my second try! Glass blowing has become one of my favorite hobbies in the lab! Next time, Professor Baldelli plans to teach me how to connect pieces at a 90-degree angle.
Adventures
Outside of the lab, everyone was planning for Noah’s birthday. His parents had a cake delivered as a surprise, so we worked together to sneak it into another intern’s dorm just after Noah got back to his room. It was an excellent covert mission. Because it was about seven and most campus restaurants were closed, we walked to The Flying Dumpling the next day for dinner. Today, the group plans to go to the rec center for the day. Afterwards, we might get boba from the shop next door.
Next Week
Most of next week will be spent preparing for the group meeting on Friday morning. Noah and I are scheduled to present rough drafts for the project and receive feedback from Professor Baldelli and the research group. The final poster presentation will be at the end of our fifth week here. I will be working on collecting Raman spectra of different materials, mostly pigments, like titanium dioxide. I also plan to do as much reading as possible before the final presentation. As much as I’d like to work on more glass blowing, most of my time will be spent on the final presentation.
Thanks for reading!
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