Color Changing Kool-aid

Its the first week of research in Summer 2016! This summer I'm working on looking at how DNA interacts with CTAB gold nanoparticles while my friend Celina in Professor Thompson's lab continues the work with PSS coated nanoparticles that I started last summer. This week I mostly worked in Professor Thompson's lab changing the tubing on the nanoparticle flow-reactor and attempting to make a liter of CTAB nanoparticles using it.

Flow reactor used to make up to a liter of CTAB nanoparticles at a time.

It took a few tries to get the right reactant volumes for the monodisperse nanospheres we wanted. The first batch seemed, from its properties and UV-vis, to possible contain nanocubes. These nanocubes conveyed a really interesting property to the solution that made it a rusty red color in normal light and  a violet color when held up to sunlight.

In the end we managed to make nanoparticles with a smooth UV-vis around the right wavelength and normal DLS and Zeta measurements.

                                             

Next week, I am hopefully going to get some DNA and be able to start wrapping it around the nanoparticles.