I’ve been told my posts are too lengthy, so I’ll try to condense a very busy day and touch on what I feel were the most exciting points. It’s difficult, as were exposed to so many different projects today!
First, a follow up on the cement experiment we set up on the first day: we got great results, and a graph to go with it! The results were aligned with our expectations. Sugars are a retardant in the hydration process of cement and salts are a catalyst. I was shocked to see the difference between the samples with 1% maltodextrin (sugar) and 1% calcium chloride (salt). The maltodextrin sample was still so fluid that it could be easily stirred and poured (see picture). The calcium chloride sample, however, was rock solid – there would have been no way to get it out except cutting open the container (see picture). I did learn that a sample with 0.05% sugar can retard the process by 12 hours, and since we used 1.00%, it could be weeks before our sample sets.
The main activity we did today was making WOW particles – water in oil in water particles. They are essentially delivery devices, and the specific WOW particles we made are used for delivering substances into oil wells. The core water, which we colored with food coloring, the second layer is a monomer that serves as the oil, and the third later is water. The “fusing” of the layers, or emulsion, is then set off by shining a UV light on it (see picture). The final step was to put the particles we made under a microscope and look at what we made – cute little spheres! (see pictures)
Speaking of microscopes, we got to observe an amazing one in the afternoon. It was an SEM microscope, short for scanning electron microscope, that produces detailed images of extremely small particles by scanning them with a focused beam of electrons. There was one particular example image on display, where the microscope was able to show the bumps and ridges on a single human hair. (see picture) The technology is extraordinary, and I feel so lucky to have seen such beautiful images of spectacularly small particles. (see pictures)
