My research during the Summer.
This summer was one of the best summers I have ever had, since I had the opportunity to participate in an undergraduate research program at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. This was my first time doing an internship and I can tell that the experience was very enlightening. From my point of view the first two weeks were tough, because everything was new. But once you get used to the people and your laboratory everything is just so great!
My work was about in the developing of fluorous sensing membrane solid contact Ion Selective electrodes ( SC-ISEs) with three dimensionally ordered macroporous (3DOM) carbon as the solid contact. The intention of the electrode is to detect perlfuorualkyl acids in aqueous solutions reaching low detection limits. The reason we were focused on these compounds was because they are distributed world-wide; they do not degrade easily and are bio-accumulative.
My electrode shows response with a detection limit of 6.11×10-7 M . This is very interesting because this detection limit could be further improved since 3DOM carbon-contacted ISEs provide very stable potentials and low detection limits, on the level of ppt for Ag+.
Based on my experience and the new knowledge about this subject I have some goals in mind for this semester.
- Keep working with The removal of TNT in aqueous solutions using shredded r tire rubber as the adsorbent.
- Use a new adsorbent material for absorbance capacity comparison with the commercial activated carbon.
- Explore the use of PVC membrane ISEs for the detection of the Meisenheimer anion from TNT.
As a synopsis my research last semester involved the preparation of an adsorbent based on shredded tire rubber. The resulting material was a carbonized tire which showed an adsorption capacity of the 88% which is not bad for a 99% compare with commercial activated carbon. The material was characterized and adsorption isotherms and kinetics experiments were carried out. During the summer my mentor took advantage on the project and synthesized a new material in order to be used this semester for comparison purposes.
