Setting up induction heating apparatus

Author: Bree Scott | Major: Mechanical Engineering | Semester: Fall 2022

I am a mechanical engineering student taking additional biomedical engineering courses and conducting research in the lab of mechanical engineering professor Dr. David Huitink. I received an Honors College Research Grant for Spring through Fall 2022. After graduation, I hope to attend graduate school for biomedical engineering and eventually go into a career engineering devices that improve medical care.

The timer starts, and I press the pipette plunger to release a bubbly liquid into the sealed beaker containing a nanoparticle suspension. Sounds of a beep and low humming fill the air as the induction heater passes high levels of alternating current through the coils surrounding the nanoparticle beaker. A reaction commences, and bubbles rise from the suspension and travel through curves of clear plastic tubing to a collection area, where I monitor the amount of air produced. This is a glimpse at the experimental setup I regularly use while studying the interesting applications of inductively heated nanoparticles for facilitating chemical reactions. The Honors College research grant and the support and guidance from my research mentor, Dr. Huitink, made this project possible.

I met Dr. Huitink through his Introduction to Materials mechanical engineering class my freshman year and began training on nanoparticle heating in his lab during Fall 2021, my sophomore year. Because of my interest in engineering solutions to healthcare challenges, I was especially intrigued by the applications of nanoparticle heating for hyperthermia cancer treatment and was excited to learn the lab techniques. In Spring 2022, supported by the Honors College research grant, I began a new project investigating the effectiveness of inductively heated nanoparticles at driving chemical reactions.

The manufacturing of many chemicals and materials is heavily dependent upon the controlled facilitation of specific chemical reactions, motivating a constant search for faster and more energy-efficient methods of facilitating reactions. Inductively heated nanoparticles offer an underexplored method of facilitating chemical reactions through both catalysis and provision of heat. The nanoparticles can be evenly dispersed through a reactant mixture, possibly creating a more uniform heat distribution than typical hot plate heating methods, with different implications on reaction rates. Therefore, my research compares reaction rates produced using nanoparticle induction heating with those from traditional hot plate heating.

Much of my work in Spring 2022 focused on developing my experimental setup and improving flaws that arose in the setup during experiments. I decided on the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide as the test reaction because it produces harmless oxygen gas that I could monitor to determine reaction rates. After considering multiple options, I chose to collect the gas in an inverted cylinder full of water, as this would allow precise measurement of a wide range of gas levels. During early experimental trials, I encountered issues such as overflowing of the nanoparticle suspension, overheating of certain system components, and software issues that I resolved through numerous iterations of changing the experimental setup and increasing practice with using the setup and software. Designing the experiment and improving the setup strengthened my creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving skills, so I am grateful for the experience.

In Fall 2022, I built on this work by continuing to improve the experimental setup and collecting data on reaction rates driven by the hot plate or nanoparticles. Regular meetings with Dr. Huitink and occasional progress presentations to the lab group tremendously helped me find areas of weakness and ideas for improvement in my experimental setup. Once I achieved a working setup, I gathered heating curve and oxygen collection data on varying concentrations of nanoparticle samples at various temperatures on the hot plate. However, I realized that the larger induction heating coil I planned to use for nanoparticle testing would produce an insufficient magnetic field, and thus I needed to use a smaller beaker and repeat the hot plate experiments with the smaller beaker.

After adjusting for these issues and performing further testing on both hot plate and induction heating samples, I did not find a significant difference in the rates. However, the amount of oxygen I produced from both sample types was so small due to apparent degradation of the hydrogen peroxide stock that it was difficult to analyze differences between the groups. Therefore, I have placed an order for a fresh hydrogen peroxide stock that should produce higher amounts of oxygen gas and will repeat the testing to determine whether significant differences are present.

Although at times it was difficult running into setbacks during the research process, each successful adjustment I made to the experimental setup was very rewarding. Additionally, I was able to practice problem solving and innovative thinking as I created solutions to the issues that arose. I hope to eventually use what I have learned through my research experience in graduate school for biomedical engineering and ultimately a career engineering devices that improve medical care. This upcoming semester, I am excited to continue the research using my improved experimental setup to see what results I uncover.