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Wendy Li Week 4-5


The past two weeks were really amazing. As I wrote in last my blog, though most of the nanorods aggregated in clusters, I have finally succeeded in coating gold nanorods on polystyrene film through drop casting. I tried to use water to wash the crystals and dissolve the nanorod clusters which, however, did not really help—several 70-80nm high nanorod clusters could still be detected by AFM (atomic force microscope). Realizing that the five times concentrated nanorod solution might be too concentrated, I then changed the solution back to stock solution and performed drop cast. Unexpectedly, the adjustment of solution concentration dramatically refined the experimental results: most of the nanorods were distributed separately as well as evenly on the polystyrene film. Moreover, the nanorod concentration this time was suitable for ellipsometer measurement. I measured the polystyrene forested glass film before dropcasting with nanords, after dropcasting (before annealing), and after annealing to see how nanorods behaviors changed during and after annealing.

During 8.7-8.8, I was able to attend seminars held by NATAS (North American Thermal Analysis Society) with my lab group. Worldwide professors and students who are working with glasses and polymers came to present their newly conducted researches. Among varieties of topics including effects of confinement on Tg in polymer films and nanocomposites, the behavior of glass forming materials, I am especially interested in the Connie Roth’s research upon polymer-polymer interface. Studying the Tg and other local dynamics of polymer-polymer interface, new synthesis and processing method to create nanostructured materials with glassy and rubbery phases intimate contact can thus be conducted.

Figure. ellipsometer fitting model

Figure. AFM image

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