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Wendy Li. Week 6


My 6th week of summer research was really busy. Coming to a realization that fitting method (model) I created last week was not a good fit to other nanocomposite film, I decided to refine the fitting method, especially the fitting method for gold nanorod layer. What I was trying to do was fitting the polystyrene and gold nanorod layer separately. Hence, I first fitted the polystyrene layer and measured its thickness right after the PS solution was spin coated on the glass substrate. Then, I dropcasted gold nanorod solution directly onto the glass substrate to create a separate gold nanorod layer. Using the ellipsometer, I, again, recorded the thickness and created a fitting method. Without the influence of variables from polystyrene layer, the fitting process for gold nanorod layer will be easier and more precise. Following that, I combined the two separate fitting methods together to create a complete fitting method for PS film embedded with nanorod. In addition to refine the fitting method, I also annealed two sample films at 140 Celsius for 3.5 hours and another one sample at 140 Celsius for 12 hours. Performing the AFM imaging to the annealed films, I can apparently see that most of the nanorods went down in the PS layer, a small amount of nanorods, however, were still at the surface because their contact angle problems. For next week, I am going to apply SEM to sample films to characterize the orientation of nanorods.

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