Day 2 and Day 3

It's the third day into the programme and I find myself enjoying this attachment programme more and more. Well, to be honest, Louis and i started off pretty dubious about the programme and we were also very much unclear about the requirements. Today, I was glad to be able to attend the presentation by the JC1s (Louis had something to attend to), and that round of passionate sharing really gave me insights to the programme requirements.
But before we delve into the presentation that occurred today, let me first recall the happenings in the second day. The second day was the day we really got down to doing the experiments,  and we tried out electrospinning using a flat piece of aluminium foil as the collector.

aluminium foil collector with PAN nonofibres coated on it

Hooray, it worked and I was pretty amazed. The white shade on the silver aluminium foil is the Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibres, which are all stacked and overlapped against one another. The time taken for this amount of nanofibres to be generated was almost 2 hours, and the thickness of the PAN nanofibres mesh is similar to very thin plastic bags. The PAN mat is freestanding though, it can be peeled off from the foil and be used as a separate material. Dr Kong suggested we may be able to use PAN or other polymer mats for our presentation. This could be a viable idea, as such nanotube mats seem really useful for making fabrics. Dr Kong also mentioned that it is possible to control the number and size of pores of the nanotubes by using different polymers (FYI, the polymer nanotubes are not always strands with smooth surfaces, they can be hollow or even porous). This will allow even greater flexibility in the production of the fabric.

Besides this PAN mat, we also tried making a 3D sponge-like material by replacing the collector with ethanol. With ethanol, which has a low density, polymer nanotubes ejected from the emitter will be able to sink into the solvent, forming a 3D mesh within the ethanol.

elctrospinning set-up using ethanol collector

We've yet to see the 3D sponge being formed as we had to leave early, and the electrospinning process had to take some time. We'll get back to you soon though, with what the 3D sponge looks like. There are many benefits to this 3D sponge. The most obvious one will be that the sponge has a very large surface area due to the many nanotubes forming it. This can possibly improve the functions of certain modern appliances, one being the lithium-ion battery, as the graphene electrode may be replaced with another 3D nanotube structure that will increase rate of electrode reactions and eventually increase the power output of the battery. Well, this 3D sponge is certainly interesting, and we're still deliberating on how to utilise it in real life situations.

Yea, so that pretty much sums up day 2, though i have one last thing to mention about yesterday, that is, the food in NTU. We ate at a food court nearby in the campus, and it we were completely spoilt for choice. I ate noodles :)

Sliced Fish You Mian

Okay, so now we'll be delving into the details of day 3. Like i mentioned, there was a presentation prepared by the JC1 attachment students, and we were kindly invited to sit in as guests. Wow, those guys really set the bar up high. These juniors really know their stuff and were able to come up with brilliant ideas. I heard 5 different ideas from the 5 groups: Incorporating solar panels and windmills into water bottles to generate portable electricity; designing 'spotless' fabrics that are superhydrophobic and are easy to clean and resistant to bacteria; modifying existing bulletproof suits to better withstand bullet impact as well as to improve the ergonomics; inventing heat-up jackets that utilise flexible and easy-to-carry-around batteries; coming up with window coatings that have thermochromic properties. The ideas were entirely out-of-the-box, and prompted me to rethink about the purpose of this attachment programme. At this instant, i find myself engaging in this programme as a "kid", because kids are always learning new things, always amazed by things around them and and always unafraid to spout out their ideas, even if these ideas are entirely moronic. Probably, this programme aims to bring out the curious kid in everyone of us and to convey a strong message that you can do anything in research, all you need is an idea. The ideas that we can have they are truly limitless, just as long as we are able to think of it, it will eventually become reality.

Alright, so I guess me and Louis will really be doing something that we're passionate in, and hopefully, we will be able to emulate the standard that the JC1s have set for us.