Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Only one set of data from yesterday's work can be used; the other films were either dirty or did not have smooth edges. Any artifact in the film can affect the wrinkling. This morning, we each make three more films and carry them to Hasbrouck. We prepare another 0.03% surfactant solution. Dave and Efren have success floating and wrinkling films, but none of my films will separate from the slides. The films are cut and do begin to separate, but then they fold back on themselves and will not free themselves from the substrate. Trying to figure out my problem, we realize that my films were on the top of the pile during transport to Hasbrouck and were exposed to the sun and the heat during the transport; Jiangshui thinks this is the problem. I return and try to make more films, but the spin coater is throwing the slides off of the base. Jiangshui thinks the O-Ring is worn in one area, so this afternoon we will try anchoring the slides in a different area on the base.

After lunch, we each prepared two more films. Jiangshui's hypothesis about the worn spot on the O-ring appears to be valid; we are orienting the slides differently and they are staying on the platform. In addition, we covered the films during transport so that the sun would not affect them. We added 1.2ml of 5% surfactant to 200 ml of water and waited 20 minutes for equilibration. Jiangshui felt that we may be scoring the film too hard and are kicking up glass fragments onto the film, that is why they are all looking so dirty. He suggested that we use a lighter touch while cutting, so we try that this afternoon. Not one of us is able to successful float a film. We are continuously told that there are far more bad days with research than good days, and today seems to be one of those bad days. No meaningful data was generated.