First Day

The first day in the attachment programme at Nanyang Technological University School of Materials Science and Engineering has been a fascinating one. For a start, let us introduce ourselves, the owners of this blog as well as the duo team working on Materials for sustainability. Li Ling and Louis, we are, and we do hope to make the most out of this programme. Dr Kong Jun Hua is our mentor.
First impressions: the lab is a really cold place, don't forget your lab coats and protective eye wear.
Today was a day we spent getting ourselves exposed to some different equipment in the lab, and the electrospinning device was particularly intriguing. The principles are simple, a collector is placed beneath a dropper (needle-like tube that allows organic material to drip through it), then a voltage is applied and eventually a long polymer chain is formed when the droplet is elongated. Conditions are inert here. Dr Kong gave us several ideas about how we can go about using this device: we can create a two dimensional mat consisting of many polymer chains overlapping over one another, or even create a three dimensional mass that is spongy in nature. The first mat can be constructed by using a flat aluminium foil collector, while the latter 3d sponge utilises a organic solvent as the collector.
Under further heat treatments, the polymers can eventually be chemically altered to form pure carbon chains, which has many uses. Earlier, we were also taught about lithium-ion batteries which utilise thin graphite layers as electrodes. Carbon chains should be able to come in handy here. Talking about lithium-ion batteries, they actually are rechargeable batteries that can last for ages as long as the electrodes do not collapse or become destroyed. As Dr Kong has shared, it is presently a challenge to find viable alternatives for the graphite electrode that have higher capacity as well as stability. Well, we'll be rich if we knew how, but this could be something we might be working on for the presentation.
Final takeaways from today: Research is no joke, it is a serious and often boring business. Research is tough, it requires a constant inquiring attitude as well as a passion towards your area of expertise. Still, scientific research is vital, even though their effects are not immediate. It's all about knowing, bit by bit, more about the world around us. This one extra scientific journal published may eventually be of utmost relevance to future generations studying this area. We find this an especially noble cause of scientific research and we truly salute all scientists.