２０１４年７月１日ー３日

July 1st:

I had submitted this schedule via email to my professor the day before:

This is more or less the schedule that I have followed the whole month. 

So, the first day's HP Ci powder thing was just to test my theory that carbon nanotubes seem to re-aggregate due to the titanium powder expansion during heating. We wanted to make a Cu w/ nanotube sample with very low relative density, and then compress it while analyzing the movement of nanotubes under a microscope. The first sample of copper was heated at too low of a temperature, and there fore didn't melt together. It crumbled apart as soon as I took it out of the furnace. We more important things to be doing anyways. Preparing 8 samples of titanium. That is literally twice the amount of work I did in the first 2 months, in the span of 1 month. Here are some pic/videos.

"Don't throw rubber grove into this box" hehe. 

Presenting the fail of a copper sample:

Here is a video of me pouring 45 micron titanium powder into a capsule. It's hard to film/pour so the spilling is a little embarrassing.. But I made sure to add more powder to compensate.. Pay attention to how fluid like the powder moves. The particles are so small, you can really start to see fluid behavior. It's awesome to witness.

Anyhow, that day, I managed to get through the pure samples, while putting the nanotube samples on the rocking mill. Very productive.

June 2nd and 3rd:

Another productive two days. I spent the entire days sintering 6 samples. Here's a brief video I took of the set-up process. I got cut off because my phone memory ran out. The titanium is inside that bit black, carbon cylinder you see in the beginning. That is where the high voltage current gets pulsed through, heating up the samples.

So, incase you are wondering what the "traveling" is for in the calendar, well, it's because I went to visit my girlfriend Maika in Taipei. The journey started on Thursday night. My flight with Peach Airlines left at around (1 hour prior check in is required for international flights) 7:30 AM on Friday and it takes about an hour and a half just to get to the airport from my dorm. The first train only leaves at 5, so to catch my flight on time I ended up leaving for the airport on Thursday night and sleeping in the terminal.