NTU-MSE Sports Material (Biosensor) Research Shadowing: Day 2~

Our journey continued to our mentor's office, where samples of his research was kept.
We had the honour of entering this room, where his workdesk lies.

Entrance~

We were greeted by this. Hmm, he has been busy with his task at hand, indeed …

Samples + SDS ( Safety Data Sheet)

Also, we got to see DIAMOND! But... it was in powder form. Nothing like those shiny expensive diamond~

Diamond Powder & Pure Graphite

We then proceeded to FACTS again, in hope of using the XRD (X-Ray Diffraction) machine.

This machine, along with computer software, uses Xrays to analyse and obtain different information about different samples.

XRD

How It Works

In the calculation part, Bragg's Law must be used too.

$n\lambda=2d\sin\theta, \,$

Bragg's Law

After that, we went ahead to the Furnace Room to collect samples that were ready for another experiment. In the room, there were ovens and furnaces that could go up to 3000 degree Celsius!

Heat Treatment Lab~

One of the many furnaces!

CAREFUL! That's HOT!

Equipments were limited, but with an efficient system that controls the usage and booking of equipments, students get to book the required equipment easily. For this experiment, the Contact Angle Measurement Machine was booked under 1 minute using the system.

System for booking facility & equipments~

Contact Angle Measurement Machine

This experiment was to test the hydrophobic tendency, whether it was hydrophobic or hydrophilic, by measuring the contact angle with respect to the surface. With a higher contact angle, there is higher hydrophobic tendency.

Hydrophobic: Water Resistive

Hydrophilic: Water Attractive

From the three tests below, we can tell that the sample from Test (iii) is more hydrophobic~

Test (i)

Test (ii)

Test (iii)

Finally, we made our last stop at the new Research TechnoPlaza, where our mentor does his lab works most of the time. Here, we went through the process of Centrifugation, where we seperated a mixture of Graphene and Graphite using a Centrifuge.

What is a Centrifuge?
-An equipment used to seperate substances.

-High rotating motor that spins to seperate the substances.

-Spun with a force of 2000 g* to allow the heavier graphite particles to settle to the bottom, while we experience only 1 g daily.

*g= Gravitational Field Strength