My name is Mollie Henry; I am a biochemistry major in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. I research within Dr. Robert Coridan’s lab, who is a part of the Chemistry Department. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions this year, I was unable to research within the lab during the Fall 2020 semester. However, I have worked with Dr. Coridan since Spring of 2019 and have almost completed the experiments required to report the findings of my project. I kept in contact with my Dr. Coridan and was able to discuss our future plans and find thesis committee members throughout the Fall 2020 semester.  I plan to spend the Spring 2021 semester completing my research and defending my thesis. In previous semesters, I worked to determine which noble metals uniformly replace with cuprous oxide on an FTO film. During the Spring 2020 semester, we saw that copper chloride was forming on the interface of the film and prematurely halting the reaction. My future experiments will work to determine how to break down the copper chloride that is formed during the galvanic replacement reaction.

In all laptops and at home computers, there are electronic chips inside of them made by large companies like Intel. These chips require micropatterning the metal to create the best energy conduction, and the micropatterning of metals is a very extensive and costly procedure. I work to determine which metals replace with cuprous oxide on a film placed in a basic solution, as the film is only nanometers thick it is considered a simple form of micropatterning. By knowing which metals are successful, we can create a new method of micropatterning methods that is much more cost efficient. As mentioned above, there was copper chloride present on the film, which stopped the reaction due to its insolubility. I will work to determine how to stop copper chloride from forming in the upcoming semester. This reaction and library of metals can be used any many other fields as well including catalysis and optical devices.

I found Dr. Coridan’s research lab simply by browsing the University’s Chemistry Department directory and looking into each professor’s research topic. I found Dr. Coridan’s most interesting, so I reached out via email. He was more than willing to meet with me and discuss how I might be helpful in the lab. Dr. Coridan had multiple graduate students within his lab, who were all focused on individual projects. Dr. Coridan allowed me to choose which graduate student I would work under (James Lowe) and we shaped my project based on what would be most helpful to the future of James’ project. James and Dr. Coridan continuously help me through my project and experiments and guide me through every step. Over time I have come to understand my project and its purposes more and more.

I have learned many things about procedure and the theories behind it throughout my years in the research lab. For example, I have learned several ways of shifting solubility rules for each individual compound. As in, adding heat or light in order to make copper chloride soluble in certain solutions. However, I have yet to see any of our methods make copper chloride completely soluble. It has been a series of trial and error this past year to determine how to ride our cuprous oxide films of copper chloride. This is our biggest challenge to date and will hopefully be overcome within this next semester. All of the data and information I have collected or will collect in the coming months will be presented this spring as part of my honors thesis.