Hello Everyone!

I’m really excited to be back in the lab research setting and it is definitely awesome to be privileged to work with a great staff here at UTEP under Dr. Noveron.  We had our first conference meeting where we (NEWT staff and colleagues) presented a brief abstract consisting of an overview of our research projects and to learn a little bit about what everyone else is doing in the lab.

Following up on the plan, Dr. Noveron sat with me to explain his vision for my research by working with Luis Barrera, my mentor and doctorate student.

Currently, I am working on a modified version of Luis’ research in which we use cotton fabric to attach titanium dioxide and carbonize it to produce graphite (graphene sheets).  This will ultimately be used as a water filter to sanitize and purify water to a “food grade” quality.

This week I was able to coat some cotton sheets with titanium dioxide by curing them under high heat. I then cut the sheet into strips to fit it into a ceramic boat to place into a furnace running with argon. I was excited that our carbonization technique worked (after a few stumbling blocks)!

              

 

I separated the sheets and added methyl orange to one of our strips.  We ran a series of samples under UV light to test whether the dye would bind to the graphite.

 

Today, I have some visual positive results!  I can see that the concentration of methyl orange has decreased over time and that is a GOOD SIGN!! Yay!!

The next step is to take the concentrations of each sample which I’m hoping we can get done today.  We will analyze our data and figure out our next steps accordingly.

I look forward to reading more about everyone’s research 🙂