Buffer Effects

The course of this week has certainly been eventful in every way. We received a new instrument, UV Transilluminator, with two ultraviolet wavelengths, proficiency in Excel has minimized my data analysis from 11 hours to three hours, and discoveries in our solution has shed some light on my knowledge of photocatalyst.

To start off this week we received a new UV Transilluminator and had learn the functionality of this new instrument. The set up and process is similar to our previous UV Transilluminator so it did not take very long. I designed a frame to cover the screen of the transilluminatorr to help maintain uniformity of UV rays to our multiwell sample. We also incorporated another instrument to our research that allows us to measure fluorescence. We discovered that special black multiwells would have to be used with this instrument to obtain better readings for our sample.

I have come to notice this week that my proficiency in Microsoft Excel has dramatically improved. From the first and second week I was here, I had to create a template for all the data we collected. Now looking back I see that  I have become a lot faster in organizing, analyzing, and interpreting data. Recently, I have been working on a MatLab code during my free time to help data analysis, but I am stumbling upon a portion of my code that allows me to organize my data in matrix form. More is to come of this code as I try to discover a proper way to allow MatLab make my graphs and organize my data.

One of the grand discoveries we made this week was a buffer effect. We discovered that by using different buffers causes a faster rate of reaction when using a photocatalyst. This week we will be aiming to find out more information on why this is so and using more photocatalyst to observe if this trend is constant.

Towards the end of the week Dr Alford talked to several REU students about graduate school and the process several students take. Although I am a rising Sophomore, I am starting to think more about what I would like to do once I graduate. One of the options for me to take is going to graduate school, and I think that may be one of the better decisions I will have to make one day. As far as what I would like to study will be a challenge, and with that note I understand I do have time on my side to make these decisions (and nanotechnology is one of which that does peak my interest).

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