Peddie EXP 2017

My six weeks at the Khalizov lab has ended. While my hopes of the mass spectrometry working were shattered, I gained an invaluable experience by doing research in numerous side-projects that would help out this experiment in the future. Six weeks really flew by. In terms of the work I did this week, I mostly worked to learn a program named SIMION, which is an ion optics simulation program. Dr. Khalizov gave me the thick manual to learn the basics of the program, and he hoped that I would be able to model the mass spectrometry using the program. Unfortunately, a week to master the program was not enough. Nevertheless, using this program would have showed me how the mass spectrometry in the lab would work if it was properly working. Dr. Peretz just showed up in time before my time in the lab ended, and I had the opportunity to introduce her to the lab. Afterwards, we went out for lunch in a Mexican deli near NJIT. It was great to catch up on how others are d...

My fifth week at the Khalizov lab has ended. Although this week has been a short one due to Independence weekend, I have been able to do solid work. I have one week left in the lab, but the mass spectrometry is still not working well. While Matt and Dr. Khalizov are doing their best to fix the machine, hopes look really low. They have been working on this machine for three weeks, and I understand that this is part of science research. I have done significant amount of research that still makes this experience worth it. I have been working on two things this week. I am trying to figure out if different molarities of the glutaric acid solution affect the mass of the soaked glass wool. This will be important when conducting the actual experiment because we can adjust the molarity of the solution depending on the mass of glutaric acid we want on the glass wool. I have also been testing out the nitrogen flow installed on the fume hood to see if different flow...

My fourth week at the Khalizov lab has concluded. While I only have two weeks left in the lab, the experiment is at a standstill since the mass spectrometry is still malfunctioning. Matt and Dr. Khalizov are still working on the mass spectrometry. Unfortunately, hopes are low currently. While John and I are not allowed to fix the mass spectrometry due to its technical nature, Dr. Khalizov tried to explain the problem to us on Monday since we have limited work without the machine working. Apparently, the triangular turbine in the mass spectrometry is malfunctioning because of some resistors arranged in a wrong way. This prevents reagent ions to run the mass spectrometry. Another potential problem is contamination of the mass spectrometry, which may be giving some odd values. Dr. Khalizov is planning to call the technician from the company that made the mass spectrometry. While it does not look promising at the moment, I hope John and I can perform some experi...