Friday, February 26, 2010

Lecture #24, Friday, February 26th

Today I started class with a video outlining how to coat your glass electrode with a TiO2 paste. This technique will be the focus of lab #1 for this week. You will be practicing the technique on standard microscope slides and will then need to prepare a film on your conducting glass by the end of the period. You will also need to fill out a form stating which dye you plan to use for your solar cell. You will need to bring your dye to class with you the second lab period of the week.

I posted a generic procedure for using the doctor blade method to prepare your uniform film, but their are other methods you could use as well, like the one shown in the video in class (it's posted on Carmen for a reference for while you are performing the procedure). Another excellent youtube link, shows how to prepare a solar cell and it is nice because it will show you how to determine which side of your conducting glass you need to deposit the TiO2 paste.

After discussing the lab procedure I started the content from Chapter 12, which is titled Modern Materials. I went over the differences between an isolated, single atom and a molecule and on Monday we will discuss the differences between a molecule and a solid. In each case we need to emphasize and analyze the lowest energy electronic transitions. We will discuss these topics further next week and tie them together with redox chemistry.

Over the weekend I am attending a conference in Pittsburgh. I will not be very accessible to e-mail until Sun evening, so I apologize in advance for not responding as quickly as I normally would.

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