MICROSCOPE PHOTOS

Photos taken 04-22-02 in Prof. Christine Ortiz's MIT lab 12-065

Images of Crushed Octadecane Embedded in PDMS.

Click here to see the processing of the following samples.

These are photos of 1 gram of octadecane embedded into 2 ml of PDMS (using the curing agent and base), separated into 3cm diameter cell-culture plates and allowed to gel for 3 days under a hood. Small pieces were cut from samples A, B, C and D using a clean razor blade and the help of small tweezers. The following images were taken at 2,5x and 10x Magnification. The silicone was processed on 4-18-02.

These are photos of Silicone A. This piece was made after further diluting the PDMS and octadecane mixture with an additional 500ul of PDMS solution. Because PDMS has a greater density than octadecane, the octadecane floats to the top of the mixture. Therefore, the additional 500ul did not dilute the mixture.

The first image was taken at 2,5x and the second at 10x Magnification.

The following photos are of Silicone B. This gel was about twice the thickness of the other gels in addition to appearing to contain a larger percentage of crushed octadecane. This is believed to be this way because, as we stated above, the octadecane appears to float in the PDMS. About 1000ul were placed into this cell-culture well. It appears to be flakier than the other samples while cutting out our small fragment to analyze with the microscope. It seems to break apart a bit if the silicone is bent. This should have been the most dilute, but because the phase-change material floats in PDMS, it is the most concentrated. The first image was taken at 2,5x and the second at 10x Magnification.

The following are photos of Silicone C. This gel was the most dilute (it was the first one formed, with the least amount of octadecane since the phase-change material had floated upward in the solution) in addition to having the least amount of solution, 500ul, put into the well.

The following images show what appeared to be a dry section of silicone C. The first image was taken at 2,5x Magnification and the following two images were taken at 10x Magnification.

The following images show what appeared to be a soft, rubbery section of the gel. The first image was taken at 2,5x and the second at 10x Magnification.

The following photos show Silicon D. 750ul of solution were placed in this well. This amount and concentration appears to have the best properties. The octadecane appears to be evenly dispersed throughout the sample. There are no noticeably dry patches. This sample was the easiest to cut with the razor blade. There was no noticeable flaking away of octadecane material. In the following images, the first was taken at 2,5x and the second at 10x Magnification.

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