Week two of the REU program consisted primarily of further defining my goals with others' assistance, learning how to do some different types of experiments, and attending the beginning of the annual conference for the North American Membrane Society (NAMS).
After talking with my lab mentors and faculty advisors, who were a great help in the goal setting process, I learned that the project that I will work on will involve making membranes from cellulose that are capable of breaking down organic compounds and performing water separations. Also, I learned that I will compare these membranes to others made from polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) that have the same purpose.
In lab this week, I learned how to carry out a few different types of experiments. One of these was the measurement of DI water flux, which is the outlet volume flow rate per area of membrane when a deionized water inlet is used; the other was the determination of selectivity, which involves finding out the percentage of a certain compound that a membrane blocks during filtration. Both of these experiments involve use of a pressurized filtration cell, which is pictured below. When performing a selectivity experiment, I filtered a blue substance called blue dextran from water and I got to learn how to use a UV-visible spectrophotometer to measure absorbance of the initial feed and the outlet at different wavelengths in the visible spectrum. This was helpful since the concentrations needed to calculate the percentage of molecules blocked by the membrane can be found using these absorbances. Additionally, I got to create some PVDF and polysulfone membranes.
In lab this week, I learned how to carry out a few different types of experiments. One of these was the measurement of DI water flux, which is the outlet volume flow rate per area of membrane when a deionized water inlet is used; the other was the determination of selectivity, which involves finding out the percentage of a certain compound that a membrane blocks during filtration. Both of these experiments involve use of a pressurized filtration cell, which is pictured below. When performing a selectivity experiment, I filtered a blue substance called blue dextran from water and I got to learn how to use a UV-visible spectrophotometer to measure absorbance of the initial feed and the outlet at different wavelengths in the visible spectrum. This was helpful since the concentrations needed to calculate the percentage of molecules blocked by the membrane can be found using these absorbances. Additionally, I got to create some PVDF and polysulfone membranes.
Other than working in the lab this week, I got to go to the annual NAMS conference on Sunday. Throughout my time at the conference, I got to attend a reception and a panel session that covered information about career possibilities after a PhD, which I thought was interesting since I am not sure of what route I would want to pursue once my undergraduate work ends. One of my takeaways from this session is that there are a lot more PhD graduates that go into industry or work for the government than I originally thought. I am looking forward to the rest of this conference. As my advisor Dr. DB said, I got really lucky that it is in Lexington this year. In other news, my birthday was this week and some family friends from back home (Mason, Ohio) decided to surprise me by coming to a dinner than I was having here with my family. I almost couldn't believe it at first; I appreciate their effort to make that celebration one to remember.
Overall, I am excited to see what next week brings in regards to NAMS and continuing my research.
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