Good morning everyone!
This week in the N.EW.T. lab at ASU was about problem solving and not giving up. My research consist of determining what type of media that is impregnated with silver nanoparticles works the best at removing silver in a column. If you have been following along, I have not had much success with the media that was sent to me from Clemsen University. Although it failed most of my test so far, we were determined to make it work. I set up columns with the 2 types of Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) at .25 in. height, .5 in height, and 1 in. height to see if the media would work at all.
Finally, we had success! Both of the Clemsen GACs worked at .25 inch, and .5 inch height, but only the CU GAC #1 worked at 1 inch. Since Clemsen is trying to get publish for their new method of impregnating silver, we do not know what exactly is different from that GAC compared to the commercial GAC we are using. We will be in contact with Clemsen next week to see if we can get any more information about the GAC they created so that we can design a test that works best with that GAC.
This week I was able to spend some time in the N.E.W.T. lab that Richard is in this summer. Richard is also working with silver nanoparticles, but instead of applying them to columns to remove bromide, he is using them on filters to prevent fouling. The problem is that the silver nanoparticles don’t stay on the filter very long. To solve this, his lab is adding sulfur to the filters with silver nanoparticles to help the silver stay on longer. Richard’s role is to figure out what is the right amount of sulfur to add to the filter so that it doesn’t loose to much of its antimicrobial ability. I thought it was very interesting how they were collecting data and was able to get some ideas of how I can apply using nanoparticles in my Biotechnology classes.
Next week, I will be impregnating silver into GAC I crushed and testing it see if it works as well as the GAC they sent from Clemsen. I will also be learning how to use an ICP machine to measure the amount of bromide that is in my samples. Wish me luck!
-Taylor
P.S. Sorry for no photos this week. I am in Dallas for my students competition and the Wifi is horrible here. I will try to add some when I get back to Arizona.