Continuing Creations

1/25/13


 Daniele Heather and I spent most of today gathering the three different experiments we had running in the kiln last week. Daniele had already taken the sample we put in the kiln at 750 degrees Celsius so we headed off to the lab to extract our materials. To open the vacuum sealed tube, Daniele simply took a hammer and cracked one end of the tube open, leaving the sample at the other end of the tube easier to extract. We then began to scrape the sulfur from the sides of the capsule. After prying the sphalerite mineral from within the hardened sulfur, we placed it in acetone to try and get rid of some of the excess sulfur. We also squirted some ethanol into the capsule which helped remove the sulfur from the sides of the capsule, allowing us to recycle as much of the sulfur-34 as possible. After this, Heather informed me of how the galena minerals we had begun to polish last week had accidentally been left polishing on the machine and had polished away into thin slivers of galena. Heather then presented newly polished galena molecules that practically shone like mirrors. We then headed off to the furnace room to remove the other two experiments that we had in the furnaces. After removing the capsules form the furnace, the sulfur was glowing its customary blood red color. We set the capsules down on a metal plate to cool before taking our experiments back to the lab. I tried to crack a capsule with the hammer, and though my initial attempt was under zealous  my second was a little too enthusiastic as I sent glass all over the counter. Luckily the sphalerite and sulfur remained at the bottom of the capsule rather than flying across the lab. After cleaning up the glass I set to work trying to scrape off the sulfur. However, the sulfur was stuck firmly at the bottom of the capsule encasing the galena mineral. We left the capsule propped up in a beaker and full of ethanol to try and wear down the chunk of hardened sulfur. Due to my energetic hammer wielding, there wasn't much of a capsule left, and the sample was propped up in the smallest beaker I have ever seen.

The tiny thumbnail sized beaker amused me to no end and held the galena capsule as I moved on to try my luck with the hammer on the second capsule. Luckily I had found the correct medium between not making a dent and shattering glass and was able to successfully gain access to the sample within without mishap. However, the sulfur had also formed a stubborn chunk within this capsule so we left it to soak in the ethanol. While the samples were soaking, we decided to clean off the polished galena minerals. They were attached by the crystal bond to the metal disk so we put the disk on a hot plate to melt the crystal bond. We then removed the galena minerals from the goo with tweezers and placed them in an acetone solution to remove the rest of the crystal bond. Heather than showed me the galena mineral under the microscope which after a couple minutes of careful angling so as not to catch the reflecting light of the microscope, we managed to get a great picture.

After taking the picture, we scraped off a little more of the sulfur, but the minerals still remained trapped within. Daniele then had me seal the ends of a couple glass tubes so we would have some tubes ready to go for future capsules. Luckily I have gotten much better at sealing the tubes and Daniele gave me the seal of approval with every completed tube I showed her. We also put some sphalerite and recycled sulfur in a capsule to run another experiment at the higher 750 degree Celsius temperature. At this stage in our experiment, we are still collecting data on the diffusion of sulfur in the sphalerite and galena minerals. Next week we will continue working on capsules and maybe begin to analyze some data.