Nanowires, nanoparticles, devices, oh my! Time has gone by so fast and I cannot believe we are already so close to the end of the summer internship. I have learned so much in such a short amount of time and, although there is still a tremendous amount for me to learn, I am thrilled to be experiencing so much!

It feels like we have accomplished so much since my last blog post! We have managed to experiment with gold nanoparticle deposition onto our nanowires (something we weren’t sure how well it would work), which was pretty awesome, I must say. Jose had me figure out and organize our procedure for the gold nanoparticle deposition. Although it was hard, it really pushed me to understand what we were doing. It is really hard to imagine all the possibilities for things to go wrong, as there are so many! Though it can be difficult sometimes, in the end I like it when Jose pushes me to figure out things on my own. I am forced to ask more questions and dwell deeper into our research, inevitably learning more.

By now we have successfully finished our devices, and just need to start testing them. This has proven to be hard. But research, just like life, would not be half as awesome if there were no challenges. Nor can I imagine a problem we could not solve with some time and effort, especially with such great minds in our lab. With that, our eventual success will only taste that much sweeter once we have reached it.

In addition to the research I have done with Jose, I have also been able to work a bit with Brian Evanko, another graduate student working as a part of the Moskovits Lab. He’s working on trying to deposit copper (I) sulfide electrochemically for use in photovoltaics. This was a nice change; particularly because there was more chemistry involved than Jose’s and my project (don’t get me wrong, I love our project to death). It was nice to again be in my element. It was also nice just to work with other people in our lab because of the variety in the research as well as the friendliness of everyone. However, I am glad to be focusing again on my project with Jose.

I cannot get over some of the things we have done. Every SEM (scanning electron microscope; look it up if you don’t know about it, it is awesome) image of ours brings me so much pride. I would have never even fathomed any of this when I was younger. I am pretty sure I thought the splinters in my fingers were the smallest things possible. This is incredible. I mean 10 nm? Amazing!

Seven weeks in and research I am not going anywhere. You are too cool, so bring it on. I cannot wait to see the outcomes of our project; every step we take is another towards knowledge. We may have a long journey ahead still but what a remarkable story.