Can’t believe six weeks have gone by so quickly.  It seems like yesterday we were at our orientation and anxiously waiting to begin.   (Kind of don’t want it to end.)  I have enjoyed every bit of the journey.  There’s an air of melancholy as write these lines, yet we must see the end as an accomplishment.

In this last week I have worked on the final draft of my poster and wrapped up all the possible lab work I could.  Too bad we had instrumentation issues, so I could not see the full fruition of our labor.  We were attempting to see if our samples would produce a change/shift in absorbance and fluorescence in detecting TiO2 in water samples.  You know how some instruments work……they have a mind of their own. However, my mentor says he will keep me posted.

Well this it for now!!  Can’t wait to get to Houston!

Special thanks to my mentor Reagan Turley and Primary Investigator Dr Jorge Gardea Torresdey.

The answer……………..yes there is.  Great progress for the lesson portion of the internship.

Yesterday we were able to produce a simple aqueous extraction of cilantro. Filtered and centrifuged the extraction to remove any impurities, which can be seen below:

After purifying the extraction then we placed it to a test.

In Sample 4 we have iron chloride and potassium thiocyanate, which produces a nice bright red color due to the thiocyanate reacting with the free iron atoms in solution.  Sample 5 was conducted by adding the iron chloride and the extract at once.  The potassium thiocyanate was introduced to the sample and no color change.

Sample 6 was conducted by adding the iron solution and potassium thiocyanate producing a color change as seen in Sample 4 (bright red).  Once the extract was introduced to the sample it produced a color change resulting as the one in Sample 5.  Thus, demonstrating the chelating properties of Cilantro.  Tomorrow I will be posting a video of these results.  So excited to see this occur.  Until tomorrow.

Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday.  Can’t believe it is the conclusion of our fourth week and still so much to accomplish.  Despite a short week much progress was made.  Continued to evaluate our samples of suspended TiO₂ in hopes of developing a safe and sustainable detection method.  I have been wanting to share this photo of the nanosizer and zetapotential instrument.  Crazy how this instrument can measure the smallest of particles.  It just blows my mind!!

Began the protocol for my lesson in extracting the chelating properties of cilantro and then putting them to the test.  Here are some pics for you to enjoy.

This is all for now.  Next week I plan to have completed the protocol and see some results.

Well another week down and it has been pretty interesting.  In our lab we are trying to finds ways to detect TiO2 through a colorimetric process by utilizing various chelating agents.  This process, once its successful will be used to detect any seepage of TiO2 after the filtration process.  The goal is to keep the chelate and TiO2 in a suspended form and remain as a nanoparticle in order to allow the colorimetric process to work.  This entailed measuring the nanopartilce complex through a nanosizer.  Measured all the all the different ligands (ran over 300 samples) and adjusted their pH in order to change the polaritiy of the ligand in order to prepare it for colorimetric attachment.  It has been a tedious process, however, the unknown is what keeps it exciting.  Lets see what happens this upcoming week.

I have made some great progress with the lesson.  Will use the chelating proprieties found in plants to demonstrate the chelation process that is occurring in the lab.  I am developing a lab activity protocol that will involve the extraction of the chelating properties in cilantro.  Then then add the extraction to a known concentration of an aqueous iron solution.  Finally, use a colorimetric process to determine the concentration of the free iron in solution.  The free iron will then be measured using a spectrometer.  As an enrichment activity students will then propose (based on research and experience) how plants may be engineered as part of the water filtration process.   Next week I will give the protocol its first run.  If all goes well (which I think it will) then I will be able to complete my lesson.

Until next time!!  Hope is everything is going well for everyone.  Enjoy your weekend!!!  Happy 4th!!

As I was getting ready to submit my update I noticed that I had posting to my own blog and not this one.  Below is the link to my blog page where I have been posting throughout the week.

http://rb58.blogs.rice.edu

However, here is my weekly update:

The second week is all gone and so much left to do.  In the lab we have continued to search for chelators that can bind to TiO2, but they must remain in suspension in order to develop a quantifiable colorimetric detection of TiO2 in aqueous solutions.  Several chelates/ligands have displayed some promise.  Now we are examining the stability of the ligands by manipulating the pH.  It has been a tedious process, however, I could not think of anything else I would like to be doing over the summer.

As for my lesson, I have found a topic.  It is based on the chelating properties of certain plants (specifically cilantro)and how they can be used in the water purification process.   Attempting to establish a lesson relating to water purification, chelates, and green chemistry.  Cross-referenced on teachengineering.com and a lesson like this has not been developed.  Took it a step further and searched on the American Chemical Society education website and the same result.  Next step is to align the lesson objective to the Next Gen Standards and the State Standards.  Until next time!  Hope all is well for everyone else.