Week 2

Update from my last post….

The concentrations of methyl orange after UV from our carbonized cotton sheet showed a decrease over time and confirms our nanocomposite was a success.  We followed up on the previous carbonization technique and ran 2 other samples at 500 degrees in order to prevent the denaturing of the titanium dioxide structure.

This week, our main focus was to modify our loading strategy of titanium dioxide to obtain the maximum amount on our cotton sheet.  After reading some recent research, I came across a sol gel process that could work.  We modified the strategy according to the equipment and chemicals we had available in the lab.  We used titanium IV ethoxide to load the sheet directly and added DCM under anhyrdrous conditions.  The sample was left to stir overnight.  I’m in the process of drying it and hopeful that our results will show an increase in titanium dioxide concentration compared to our previous loading technique.

Until next time!