More Carbon Capture Experiments & Responsibilities - Week 3

Hi, I'm Alyssa. Just as a reminder, I'm working on Fluidized Bed and Carbon Capture at Columbia University.

The third week, Dr. Park, my PHD student and a few other members of the Park Group went on a science forum in Delaware on carbon sequestration, so I worked for a Post-Doc candidate, Camille, on her carbon capture experiments.

Besides myself and Camille, a few more people were in "The crew": two graduate student interns Flora and Sarah, and Post-Doc June who just arrived at our lab on Monday. We performed 3 main experiments this week. I didn't take pictures of the machines, but I did find some detailed diagrams explaining the experiments.

1. Synthesis of Solvent for CO2 Capture: we made a nano-material solvent to capture CO2 from air. This went on for the whole week, so we did it step-by-step. The final solution came out on Friday, and all of us finally felt relaxed, since we'd be back to square one if we messed up a part of the process.

2. Differential Scanning Calorimetry: we carried out experiments to measure the melting points and glass transition temperatures of about 8 elements/compounds ranging from Boron to CsCl; We also observed the entropy of melting. This experiment was not too hard to operate, because all we had to do was to put the sample in and enter a few commands. It was a very time consuming experiment. We spent on average 2 hours on testing each sample and squeezed time in between testings to carry out experiment 1. We finished it on Wednesday.

Differential Scanning Calorimetry

3. FTIR Spectroscope: The objective of this experiment was to determine characterization of molecular bonds. We put a drop of aqueous solution onto a plate that has a diamond on it (not for decoration purpose, of course =P. Because the diamond is a very reflective material, it enables good reflection and enhances signals). And then, we connected the machine with an oxygen channel. Even though Camille did the first setup herself, she gave us opportunities to connect, disconnect, and operate the system. It's quite a complicated system, but it was fun learning how to link the spectroscope with different tubes. This was the shortest experiment out of all three - a one-day process.

The first experiment was performed at my main laboratory on 10th floor, belonging to Environmental Engineering Department; the last two were done at our other lab on 3rd floor, at Engineering Terrace. So you can imagine us running up and down in the Columbia Mudd Building, allocating time slots to fit all three experiments into our schedule. It's been a fulfilling week, and it was a great chance for me to learn more about carbon capture as well as get to know more people.

And lastly, a GOOD NEWS: ICP machine is back!! My PHD student Helios, undergraduate intern Naimun and I will be using it next week. This is something I've always been looking forward to, and I'm very excited for week 4!