Data Gathering and Reactant Preparations

6/19 PM

Using Balances: The precision on these balances is astonishing and debilitating at the same time. Since the actual yield is not entirely important, measuring exact values was not essential, but it was my first day on the job, and I wanted to do it the right way. However, what I quickly found was that with the balances in the MRL, if a fly passes gas within a 10 foot radius, the value on the balance changes. Soon I quickly abandoned my goal to hit exactly 4 digits of accuracy, and was satisfied with being in the ball park of that number.

Data:

0.8483 g Y2O3

2.9622 g BaCO3

1.7900 g CuO

Mortar and Pestle: For the reaction to proceed well, the three powders needed to be ground into the smallest particles possible. This ensures homogeneity and ease of reaction at the high temperatures. To accomplish this, we used an agate mortar and pestle to grind our reactants. The agate is a hard mineral that will not chip off into the reactants. Surprisingly, these are really expensivse. It seems in the MRL, even the most primitive looking tools are costly, and everyone will despise the intern that breaks them. After about 15 minutes I felt like I could empathize with the ancient hunter-gatherers as they prepared their meals. After 30 minutes, I despised them for inventing such insidious instruments of mental anguish.

Cookie Time: Fortunately, after my powders were as ground and homogeneous as a mortar and pestle can seemingly accomplish (and shortly before my threads of sanity were about to give out), we broke work for "cookie time." Thursdays at 3:30, the MRL At this meeting, all the members of the Seshadri research group get together and discuss lab issues (e.g. which machines are not working correctly, and when orders might be coming in) as well as their own research. This was nice to be a part of. I always tell my students that peer collaboration is one of the most valuable aspects to the scientific process, and this meeting was one example. At this particular meeting, not much was discussed, but I am looking forward to more opportunities to engage in the process of collaboration--something that I had only talked about before.

Jar/Ball Milling: Apparently, I may not have been a stellar hunter-gatherer chef. Our powders were not quite as finely granulated as they could be to maximize reaction efficiency, so we moved to the jar/ball milling technique. We transferred our powder mixture to a 50 mL plastic bottle, added the balls until 2/3 full, then filled with ethanol. The ethanol would act as a solvent and make a slurry with the reactants. The jar was then sealed, tested for leaks, the lid wrapped in paraffin wax, then placed in the jar milling apparatus. That title makes it sound pretty fancy, but it is essentially a big jug turned on its side, and set on rollers that cause it to rotate. As the apparatus rotates, the balls grind the slurry into a much finer consistency than the mortar and pestle could achieve.

We set the mill to run overnight, then left for the day. All-in-all, a nice first day of work. I experienced the tedious nature of many mundane but necessary scientific processes, as well as the enjoyment of being part of an academic community.