Results

For the past semester, me and my laboratory partners have been trying to synthesize smaller nanoparticles. After searching primary information, I thought of cooking. It seems unimportant but our amazing results came after that. I made my solutions as always but this time I exposed the samples to heat. This change of heat caused a reaction and finally made our nanoparticles. There is a difference in the size of the nanoparticle as we change the time that the samples were heated. We are currently doing more research in that area so we can have a better approach and a better nanoparticle. After making the heated nanoparticles, we functionalized them with the calcium ions and then we examined them in the Spectrophotometer and in the Fluorimeter. Those results showed that there is an interaction between the nanoparticles and the calcium ions. Also, I examined the samples in the STM. I am not allowed to talk about the STM results because we are analyzing the images and the data. For the next semester they are doing IR and other studies with the nanoparticle to see how exactly the calcium interacts with the CdS nanoparticle. After that we are going to use the troponin to see if we have our biosensor or if we stiil have to make some changes.

Achieved Goals

After long hours of work in the laboratory we know that the nanoparticle is made. I managed to work by myself with a new  and complicated instrument, the Scanning Tunneling Microscope to study the nanoparticle. I also have an approximate of the size, 2nm, compared to the 20-50 nm. If I have to rank my self between 1-5 for my achieved goals it would be a 5 because not only me and my partners made our nanoparticle smaller, we found a way a technique to make them smaller. This is very important because now we are very close to start working with the troponin, the calcium binding protein related to heart failure, and hopefully we can sense heart attacks. As a fact, that would be great because heart attacks is the leading cause of death in Puerto Rico and in the United States.

Applied Techniques

     For the past year I’ve been working on the synthesis of nanoparticles. In order to understand this type of science, I had to learn how to use several instruments such as the fluorimeter and the spectrophotometer. These instrumens give imortant information of the structure and behavior of the nanoparticle and how it changes as I make changes in the procedure of the synthesis. In my case, the nanoparticles are functionalized with Ca ions. As expected, there was a change in the results of absorbance gathered of the nanoparticle itself and when functionalized. This is due to an interaction between the nanoparticle and the Ca ions. It also resulted that gathered fluorescence data changed as the concentration of ions increased. The exitation of the nanoparticle was in a different peak because of its interaction with Ca ions. Both of this results were important because it gave us relevant information such as the specific change  in the absorbance and fluorescence. This shows that there is a possibility that if the functionalized nanoparticle interacts with troponin (a Ca binding protein related to heart attacks), it will also give specific changes in the absorbance and fluorescence data, making it a great bio-sensor. If I have to rate myself, I would make a 5/5 in the spectrophotometer and a 4/5 in the fluorimeter. At the beginning, I found it hard to work with these instruments because of their complexity, but with a lot of practice I got to manage them. Most importantly, you have to understand the data gathered in order to have fun with it.

Goals of the Fall Semester 08-09

In the last semester I synthesized  CdS  nanoparticles and  functionalized them with Ca+2 ions. This was proved by the Uv-Vis and fluorescence data gathered. This semester, me and my laboratory partners, are going to work on this nanoparticles,  making them  with other solvents looking for a way to make them smaller. This part of the work is to get them to the quantum dot scale (smaller). The nanoparticles created are from 20-50nm. Also, I have to work with the Scanning Tunneling Microscope which is an instrument used for studying the surface of materials. This is important to see the difference of the surface between the nanoparticles synthezised with different solvents and how they change when they are functionalized with Ca+2 ions.

Summer Research Project

Hello everyone, Its been a long time since ai wrote in my blog!!!!!! I was in the University of Massachusetts, Amherst working in the Chemistry Department with Prof. D. Venkataraman. I was working in the improvement of Photovoltaic Cells but why? The PV Cells that are in the market right now are Silicon Solar Cells and they are very expensive and their efficiencies are around 22%-26%. Some scientists where working on PV Cells and they came up with a Solar Cell made of Poly(3 hexylthiophene) or P3HT and [6,6]-phenyl-C-butyric acid methyl ester or PCBM. This SC has a 5% efficiency. They continued working in the improvement of the SC and they replaced the electron conductor PCBM with CdSe because CdSe has more movility and it is a better electron donor. When they tested the efficiency of the SC it had a 2.7% efficiency. This happened because CdSe was retaining the electrons because P3HT wasnt working as a good acceptor.  My work in the laboratory was to replace electron acceptor P3HT with Se because it is a better electron acceptor. My mentor and I found  way of depositing CdSe and Se in the electrode wich is Indium Tin Oxide or ITO. I used an ITO electrode that had a cleaved template on top made of PHEMA and Norland (Polymers). First I deposited CdSe in the cleaved template and dissolved the PHEMA and Norland in order to deposit the Se in the empty spaces left after dissolving the polymers. As for the efficiencies of my template I dont know I worked on this project for 8 weeks. I gained skills such as working with the X-Ray Diffraction and perfected the ones I already had: Scanning Electron Microscopy and the Spectrophotometer. This was a very awesome experience but at the same time very challenging because it was pure chemistry and I am a biology major. However I loved it because I learner a lot in the field of nanotechnology and material sciences and I know that in the future I can apply those skills during my PhD.

Learning and Goals

Well right now I’ve learned a lot from nano-science in general. I also have learned how to use a UV-VIS spectrometer and a Fluorimeter, to understand them and their applications to my research project. The most important thing that I have learned is to work in teams and to look for information by my self in orther to make my infestigation move towards my goal. My future goals are to study the interaction between the nanoparticle and the Ca +2 ions and finally to study the interaction between the functionalized nanoparticle with the troponin. It would be great to find a biosensor that can prevent the heart attack and to feel that I contribute to the science field and most important to the humanity.

Applied Techniques

During this semester I had the opportunity to work, under the supervision of my chairman and the doctoral student wich I am working with, using a UV-VIS scpectrometer and a Fluorimeter. These two are of great importance in my laboratory because it lets us know about the interaction between molecules. In my research project we functionalized the nanoparticles with Ca +2 ions. This was done because the troponin has 4 binding sites of calcium and it can form a complex between the 2 of them. How do we know that they are interacting? when we gathered the results we saw that the absorbance of the nanoparticle alone was a little bit different than the data of absorbance gathered of the nanoparticle that was functionalized letting us know that there was some interaction between them. The Fluorimeter is the same but this time we wanted to measure the level of exitement of the nanoparticle alone and the functionalized nanoparticle. The results were as same as the absorbance, the nanoparticle was a little bit different that the functionalized one letting us know that not only there is an interaction, but at the same time it is a great project because the level of exitement between parlicles is different and it can lead us to find a unique biosensor for the heart attack sensing.

 

 

   

Personal Experience & Purpose of Project

My personal experience as an undergraduate researcher has been a wonderfull one full of friendships, collaboration and acknowledgement. I’ve learned some things of nanotechnology that I had never imagined it even existed and how important it is for the future of science. Some of the things that nanotechnology can be useful is for the detection of explosives and much more things such as problems with the human body. My research is about creating a nanoparticle that can be used to prevent heart attacks and even more specific to detect them in real time and not when you already have the pain. Sounds awesome. Well it certainly can be great for the science and for the human being too. This is just the strart of my research and I definetly look foward to keep researching in this area that has so much to give. I have also learned interpersonal skills such as responsability, team work, patience and punctuality. All of the ones mentioned are very important and sometimes can be a little difficult to do. My biggest obstacles are punctuality and responsabily as well as dividing the work in the team because I have a laboratory partner and friend, who has different classes which means we have different schedules and we have to coordinate our work time and some times our meetings to put together our results. As I said before, this have been my biggest obstacles but never impossible to do them. It just takes time to learn how to and patience will come with it.

Introduction

Hi , my name is Francisco Zayas, current student of the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus. I’ve been doind research August 2007 (my sophomore year) until now. My interests are to get some experience in the research area as well as knowledge and to meet proffesors of other universities to make my graduate studies. I am in my second semester of my sophomore year and I plan to continue my graduate studies up to the MD/PhD. I would like to work in a childrens hospital doing research and also attending patients. I think that would be even better because I would be looking for cures to help people, specially children. My mentor is Professor Miguel E. Castro from the Chemistry Department and we are working in the synthesis of nanoparticles for the use as biosensors.I like this area of Nanotechnology because it is barely new and it has a lot to offer to the biomedical research.