Well, the rain shut down our solar experiments, but it couldn’t stop progress!

Before we could start decomposing urea using solar energy, he had to test the idea small scale.  We made a stock solution of urea (artificial urine).  From the stock solution, we made a sample of urea and carbon nanoparticles.

Since we did not have the sun to rely on, we decided to use an infrared laser instead.  We set up a distillation column, so that any steam could condense in a different flask.  Shining the laser on one section of the solution immediately created steam!  Every few minutes, we collected a sample from the solution (even though we created steam, it would condense before leaving the flask).  Twelve minutes with a laser heated up the flask to the point I could barely hold it!

We tested each sample for ammonia using the assay kit from the week before.  The samples were compared to distilled water and the stock urea solution.  All of our samples had more ammonia than the controls!  The system works!