| Nanoscale Calorimeter Development |
Principal
Investigator |
Charles
A. DiMarzio
Associate Professor
Electrical and Computer Engineering |
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Research
Abstract |
The nanohole array calorimeter experiment involves
using temperature and concentration changes to alter
the transmission through subwavelength holes to provide
a fast, very sensitive sensor. The technology is a combination
photonic based instrument with microfluidic sample delivery
system. One benefit of the experiment is that it will
provide a better means of selecting pharmaceutical compounds
to be developed into effective drugs. The objective
is to perform thermodynamic testing of a mesoscale calorimeter
using salt dilution and Agg compound reactions by September,
2009. In these experiments distilled water will be used
as one of the reactants and either a potassium salt
or sodium chloride and water solution at a range of
concentrations as the second reactant. These compounds
and mixing them as the reaction were chosen for two
reasons: (1) the experimental conditions are very easily
controlled and (2) reference data is available in the
literature. The data from these experiments will serve
as additional validation of the numerical model as well
as providing us with a means of exploring the detection
limits of our system to assess the impact of the design
variables discussed above. As the concentration difference
between the base solution (water) and the added solution
(aqueous salt) we can calculate the enthalpy change
from the literature and assess the limit of detection
achieved by the design under evaluation. Completion
of this experiment will provide a designed and tested
calorimeter prototype that has been benchmarked with
the biological reactions. |
| Research
Activities/
Experience |
Person will be active in data collection and analysis,
constructing and implementing modifications to the
experiement, stages and optical equipment, internet/library
searches. May inlcude some numerical analysis. |
Helpful
skills or interests |
Interst in optical measurements and physics, especially
thermodynamics and instruementation areas is helpful.
Should be comfortable with some chemistry. |
Suggested
literature to review prior to program |
Surface plasmons, calorimeters and nanohole array
sensors, can provide papers and references. |
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