The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work!
Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!
See how Bo-Yan is getting on with her STEM placement!
Week One
"To try and summarise my research project in a few sentences, our aim is to cultivate low-cost electronics with materials from daily life by producing a conductive ink and printing it onto a substrate, preferably paper, using an inkjet printer. This greener and cheaper electronic could benefit others, especially those in less economically developed countries where more expensive materials are not as readily available. The materials used in electronics, such as silver, could be replaced, making common technology accessible to a wider range of people.
The first week is predominantly research based. To understand and investigate our objectives, I researched the materials for our project and the methods that may be preferable for the process, focusing on environmentally friendly substances and approaches. I found reports previously written about similar research which would be used to later compare to our own findings, and read about the physical and chemical properties of materials we could use."
Week Two
"In the second week, we began experimenting - finding the right solvent for our conductive ink and testing out graphite as our conductor. Different substrates were used to test our circuit, such as paper, which would help us achieve the household items criteria.
I also started working on my poster and report for the CREST award, and continued the research aspect of the project."
Week Three
"We continued our experimentation into the third week and realised grinding the graphite into particles small enough to pass through the inkjet nozzle was quite difficult. As a substitute, we used a prefabricated ink containing silver nanoparticles, but had a problem with the printing. After each circuit was printed, lines of missing ink were left, which resulted in a circuit with a full section that could not conduct. Through printing multiple layers of the circuit, we created a circuit that avoided the problem.
On the Friday, we attended a nanotechnology lecture presented by one our supervisors and learnt how nature works at a nano-scale, through insects and viruses. The second part of the lecture was testing out the SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) which used a focused beam of electrons to create an image that enables us to view objects at micro- and nano-scales."
Week Four
"To try an alternative printing method that would be more environmentally friendly for the project, I had screen-printed the layers one-by-one to fabricate the RC filter. The circuit was made using regular printing paper as the substrate, a pre-fabricated carbon-based electric paint as the connectives, and egg white was used for one of the components in the circuit. These materials used in the project accentuated the ‘green’ factor we were striving for.
Week Two
"In the second week, we began experimenting - finding the right solvent for our conductive ink and testing out graphite as our conductor. Different substrates were used to test our circuit, such as paper, which would help us achieve the household items criteria.
I also started working on my poster and report for the CREST award, and continued the research aspect of the project."
Week Three
"We continued our experimentation into the third week and realised grinding the graphite into particles small enough to pass through the inkjet nozzle was quite difficult. As a substitute, we used a prefabricated ink containing silver nanoparticles, but had a problem with the printing. After each circuit was printed, lines of missing ink were left, which resulted in a circuit with a full section that could not conduct. Through printing multiple layers of the circuit, we created a circuit that avoided the problem.
On the Friday, we attended a nanotechnology lecture presented by one our supervisors and learnt how nature works at a nano-scale, through insects and viruses. The second part of the lecture was testing out the SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) which used a focused beam of electrons to create an image that enables us to view objects at micro- and nano-scales."
Week Four
"To try an alternative printing method that would be more environmentally friendly for the project, I had screen-printed the layers one-by-one to fabricate the RC filter. The circuit was made using regular printing paper as the substrate, a pre-fabricated carbon-based electric paint as the connectives, and egg white was used for one of the components in the circuit. These materials used in the project accentuated the ‘green’ factor we were striving for.
On the Thursday of the fourth week, we had our SATRO poster presentation at the university to demonstrate all our hard work and to explain the aims for our projects."
Week Five
"Due to a small fault in the circuit, we had to change the design of the filter so that we could avoid the same problem of short circuiting. The filter previously made was not suitable due to limitations of the frequency generator. Therefore we changed the shape or size of the components, and also changed the substrate to watercolour card to reduce buckling due to the water content of the substances used.
We eventually fabricated a screen-printed filter that could attenuate frequencies above 170kHz. This filter used low-cost materials that were not environmentally damaging, and was fabricated using a versatile and manual printing process.
Week 5 was also focused on writing my report to collate all of the research I had previously done for the project, our results we had collected and conclude what we have achieved.
Overall, this summer research placement has given me an amazing experience into the scientific field of electronics. I have had so much fun over the past 5 weeks and would like to thank SATRO and those who have helped me with the project."
- Bo-Yan Chung
No comments:
Post a Comment