Week 3 - Beginning to Spin

Figure 1: Ethylene oxide with aid of catalyst becomes PEO [1]

On April 16, in the lab Evan and Tristan mixed two identical solutions of PEO by dissolving 0.5 grams of 600,000 molecular weight PEO into 10 mL of water.  The outcome of this is a 5% molecular weight PEO in water solution which was placed on a rotational mixer to mix overnight. The rotational mixer helped thoroughly mix the solution and the particles of water with PEO. The process was new and required some getting used to understand exactly how PEO is made. The picture on the left demonstrates how it is created with an aid of a catalyst [4]. First ethylene oxide is the monomer that is combined with itself with a help of a catalyst. The catalyst allows for an addition polymer to be formed; in this case, polyethylene oxide (PEO). April 17 Evan and Tristan began spinning the created PEO solution.
Evan and Tristan will be spinning PEO fibers at six different angles in addition to six different distances. Each fiber will be spun for 30 min and stored for SEM imaging later in the week or durring week 4. Through extensive research increasing the will make the diameter smaller and increasing the distance should also make the diameter smaller. The ideal situation in our experiment is to get the thinest PEO fibers possible with some textile strength to make a proper filter. The textile strength only has to be strong enough to handle strong water flow and if time permits these fibers will be tested for their strength after SEM imaging with a tention meter.