Energy Harvesting

A collaborator of mine is interested in arranging quantum dots on a surface to demonstrate something called super irradiance. All of the sub-resolution particles could emit as one object (think laser) if the conditions are just so. Ideally, a bunch of quantum dots would be stacked closely together (but not touching) in a repeating fashion….

I designed new masks with different sized squares and slits in order to study how the aspect ratio of free-standing membranes would affect endothelial cells.  In this 1st experiment, I seeded bEnd at 50000 cells/cm2 and let them grow for 4 days.  I then stained the cells with Live/Dead and overlaid the phase channel in…

In my previous post talking about the contact angle measurement of 3-mer coated PEG, there was a lack of adequate controls, and also an unanswered issue of contamination of samples during storage. I would now like to refine the study in more -controlled fashion, and without reusing the old chips. In addition, I am also…

The 20nm deposited polymer film permeability is approximately 1e6 barrers, while bulk polyimide permeability is less then 100. So the experimental value is too high. There are two possibilities to explain it: First, the pores are partially open and 20 nm thick layer is too thin to cover big pores. I will try AFM this…

There has been some confusion lately with what we should name the compartments in diffusion.  Here’s what I’ve come up with: Top/Compartment with initial sample: Retentate Bottom/Compartment to which things diffuse: Dialysate The original word we were using for dialysate, filtrate, implies an active process and was criticized by scientists at NAMS.  While dialysate implies…

UPDATE: Some data presented here is out of date. For up-to-date data, see my next post here. — Lately I’ve been performing comparison experiments between our NPN membranes (wafer 1132, 3 slot SEPCON, 40-48nm pores and 13-20% porosity) and commercial cellulose triacetate filtration membranes, with respect to the degree to which they hinder the diffusion…