Weeks 6 and 7

Hello Again!

Last week, I primarily focused on the electrode project.

Last Monday and Tuesday, I prepared to platinum samples and on Wednesday I took them to the Electron Microscope.

The platinum wires that I am using are incredibly small (.00508 mm on diameter). In addition platinum is extremely expensive. Therefore to coat them effectively I soldered the mini platinum pieces to larger copper wire pieces (see picture below). Then I coated just the very tip of the wire. The platinum was only approx. 1cm long, but the coated part was only 1-2 mm in length.

Right one got coated. Left one didn't.
You can actually see a visible difference:
on the right, the tip of the platinum (small silver wire)
is black.

On Wednesday I took the coated wires to the Electron Microscope, where I actually got to learn how to run the election microscope by myself, which I was very lucky to learn. After learning for about 2 hours I ran some scans myself.

The results?

Not great. :( Only 1 of the 2 electrodes ended up being coated. I don't know why, and I would have to go back and figure out what happened, but as the SRP is coming to a close I don't know if I'll have enough time. Even if I don't get to finish this project from beginning to end, I learned so much about neurochemistry so it wasn't in vain.

This week though I have only been working on the sensor project. The screen and memory chip that we are going to integrate have finally come in in the mail, and I will be working with the grad student to integrate the this week and next week.

In addition, Monday and Tuesday I transferred the circuit we built on a bread board to a small plate. This new plate is also the size of an arduino so it'll fit right on top and fit perfectly in a little box.

This project is so amazing and I am truly enjoying. I'll post some pictures of it's progression later today.