Week Six: Why Bio-Binder?

Hey everyone!

Time is really starting to fly by. I cannot believe that we are already in the sixth week of research. Seems like yesterday I had no idea what I was doing for my senior research project. So, as you may remember, my project recently changed to focus more on bio-based binder.

One of the reasons I am looking into bio-binder is because of the great environmental benefits to our society.

1.  Since resources such as rice, sugar, and corn are very readily available, this allows the US economy's demand for petroleum decrease; therefore, it is renewable. 

2.  Crude oil is a scarce resource and it used in a variety of ways. When heated up to a certain degree, it acts as the gas we put in our car; this is called "crude oil distillation process". But when crude oil is heated to 340º F, a residue remains and that's called asphalt. By replacing asphalt with bio-binder, we are not depleting a natural resource.

3.  Heat islands are when the temperature of a city is significantly higher than the temperature of a rural area nearby. If the temperature is hotter, then naturally, people will use their air conditioning more. This cause air pollution. With the use of bio-binder, heat islands will decrease and pollution will decrease.

4.  It is also cost competitive. One gallon of bio-binder will cost around 54 cents; one gallon of asphalt costs around $2. In the long run, US will save millions of dollars just by partially replacing it.
(Side note: I don't know if this means that taxes will decrease. But let's hope that's the case because who likes taxes am I right?? I just had to file my taxes this week so I feel as if a lot of my money has just bounced out of my bank account.)

5. The temperature required to produce asphalt uses a lot of energy. So, bio-asphalt binder can lower the production temperature of hot mix asphalt, which may decrease paving costs by 30%, and reduce greenhouse emissions by 30%. This basically means that will be a reduced carbon footprint.

I just got the results back from the DSR testing from last week, but let's save that for next week. I will attach the presentation in next week's post. I know this is usually the time to share my latest adventure in painting, but honestly it looks so bad I can't even look at it. So maybe next week or the week after.

BYE!

P.S. Good luck to everyone on upcoming college results! I hope you all get into your dream school :)

Week Five: The New Project

Hey everyone!

I hope everyone enjoyed their spring break. I don't think I took a spring break; in fact, I probably went to the lab more often than usual! As the title of the post indicated, this week I began the preparation for a new project. Selected participants of SCENE have to create a well-polished poster for the Arizona Science and Engineering Fair, in which the winners will continue to compete in the Intel Science and Engineering Fair. Since the results from the previous experiments came out inconclusive, I was advised by my on-site mentor, Professor Shane Underwood, to take on a new project that incorporated a biological and environmentally-efficient perspective.

THE NEW PROJECT:

Bioasphalt binder is an asphalt alternative made from non-petroleum based renewable resources. Examples of the renewable resources that are used to replace asphalt are sugar, molasses, rice, corn, or potato starches.

20 grams of bio-binder arrived from North Carolina State University. This bio-binder was made from rice husk ash, which smelled like really bad barbecue sauce..

Anyway, before we jumped to anything, we had create an experimental procedure. The main idea that we are focused on is figuring out if it is possible to replace asphalt with bio-binder that can still match the required conditions.

THE EXPERIMENT:

In this experiment, I have designed a control (0% bio-binder) and created an increase increments of bio-binder (1%, 2%, 10%). But since we only received twenty grams of bio-binder, we have to take into account that residue (since asphalt is sticky and clings to everything). Assuming that there is 50% residue, we need to make sure that there is at least 0.2 g of bio-binder is usable for testing.

Percent Bio-Binder            Mass of Virgin Asphalt                      Mass of Bio-Binder
             0%                                     5 g                                                       0 g
             1%                                  4.95 g                                                  0.05 g
             2%                                    4.9 g                                                    0.1 g
            10%                                    4.5 g                                                    0.5 g
 
Then, these samples will be tested in the Dynamic Shear Rheumeter (DSR), which is a new machine that will characterize the viscous and elastic behavior of asphalt. It will measure the phase angle, the  modulus, and the stiffness of asphalt. If the phase angle is between 50 and 90, it is a durable sample. If there is an increase in the G* modulus, this means the the phase angle is lower and the sample is stiffer.

Unfortunately, this is it for today.

See you next week!

Seerat Jajj

Week Four: Inside MALDI

Hi everyone!

Hope you guys had a great week– I know I did! This week I primarily focused on researching and learning how MALDI works and the physics behind it. As you can recall, MALDI is a machine that is designed for rapid microbial identification (can pick up small molecules and analyze its components). But I never understood how MALDI was able to do that.

For the past three weeks, I showed you how we made the sample slides so now I will illustrate what happens inside MALDI.

1) When the sample is prepared, it is placed inside a high vacuum environment.

2) A precise laser ionizes the sample, meaning it converts the molecule into ions by removing electrons.

3) When these molecules are converted to ions, a "cloud" of proteins is released and accelerated by an electric charge.

4) Inside the machine is one ring, which is called the ring electrode. The ring electrode is used to record the Time of Flight. It will record when the proteins pass through the ring, which is then calculated using a formula from the time recorded.

5) Then, the proteins are detected by the sensor (as shown in the picture), which creates a spectrum that shows what the protein makeup of each sample (what ions is it composed of).

6) Then the spectrum that is created is compared against a large database of spectra ranging from bacteria to peptides that have been precisely characterized.

To summarize, the sample goes through desorption, ionization, acceleration, separation, and then detection.

This is what a MALDI spectrum looks like. On the y-axis is the intensity of the peaks and on the x-axis is m/z, which is the mass-to-charge ratio. The M stand for mass and the z stands for charge number of ions. The underlined numbers on the top of the peaks are the values of mass-to-charge for ions observed in the instrument. These peaks correspond to the same molecule, just with different charges. 

I know this was a tedious topic for those who don't like physics, but I definitely learned a lot more about the behind the scenes of MALDI. To balance the theoretical portion of this post, I'll show you what I did outside of research. (I kept my promise, I finished the painting before the end of February!)

Anyway, that is it for this week. Hope you liked it!

Seerat Jajj

Week Three: MALDI is finally here

Oh hey guys, didn't see you there..

This week was quite a blast. But let's recap on what we did last week. Last week, I prepared three concentrations of asphalt concrete:

1.25 g of Asphalt Concrete + 10 mL of toluene

0.0125 g of AC + 10 mL of toluene

0.001025 g of AC + 80 mL of toluene

This week, we decided to compLETELY take out the third dilution because MALDI could not pick up the material, therefore, it can't process it. Fret not, we still got two more dilutions. As you may remember, we placed small parts of the solutions into vials that we took to the new building that has MALDI.

the new lab

These vials now contain a "matrix," which in this case is CHCA, α-Cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid, a powder mixed with toluene.

This matrix is used so that MALDI can analyze the substance, without which it cannot process the material, similar to what happened to the dilution– 0.001025 g AC. The different dilutions are mixed with CHCA matrix, sinapic acid, and 9-Nitroanthracene, and then placed on the plate. This is not described well so I let me illustrate it clearly.

Dilution 1 (1.25 g of AC + 10 mL of toluene) mixed with

1. CHCA

2. Sinapic acid

3. 9-Nitroanthracene

AND

Dilution 2 (0.0125 g of AC + 10 mL of toluene) mixed with

1. CHCA

2. Sinapic acid

3. 9-Nitroanthracene

Then, for the sake of precision and accuracy, each different solution was repeated twice, which occupy around 0.1µL in a small circle on the plate. 

A typical result of MALDI looks like this:

As you can see, there are several high peaks reaching high numbers, which signify the component mass. For asphalt concrete, the peaks should be within 200 and 400. 

Clearly, this was not the case.

As you probably can't tell through this terribly photographed picture, there are no peaks. There's nothing. So that's research for you. It was kind of a disappointing feeling, BUT this means we have a chance to restart and think about this in a different way. Next week, I will be going more in depth on the physics behind MALDI because frankly, I don't understand it and nothing will make sense until I do.

Photography was my hobby for this week. I explored the new and various types of photography such as nature, portraits, landscape, etc. I also had a lot of fun taking senior pictures!

Anyway, I really don't know if these blogs should have information unrelated to my research, but that's what's going on this week.

Signing off,

Seerat Jajj

Week Two: What Am I Doing?

Hello... we meet again!

I started off this week preparing the sample to test in MALDI TOF/TOF Analyzer. For those who don't know what MALDI is (which is practically everyone), I will go into detail what it is and why engineers use it.

This is what MALDI looks like:

MALDI TOF (Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time of Flight) measures the distribution of analysts without disturbing the sample. Typically, this machine is used to visualize of the spatial distribution of proteins, peptides, lipids, and other small molecules. Inside the machine is placed a plate that contains the samples of asphalt or proteins or whatever is being tested.

The some dots on the plate contain around 0.05 mL of sample.

MALDI TOF, according to Google, has never been used to test asphalt composition so for me, this is both equally exciting and scary. But before we even get into the testing using MALDI, we had to prepare the samples in different concentrations (which Akshay calculated prior).

Procedure:

**WARNING: Please don't try this at home** (It smells... a lot)

1) Prepare three different concentrations of asphalt.

1.25 g of AC (asphalt concrete) + 10 mL of toluene

0.0125 g of AC + 10 mL of toluene

0.00125 g of AC + 100 mL of toluene

But since the lab had limited supply of toluene, we could only use 80 mL for 0.001025 g of AC, which is still an equal proportion to the original measurement. Except it's SO HARD to measure 0.001025 g. That is smaller than the size of a freckle. And then on top of that, asphalt is an extremely viscoelastic material, meaning it's sticky. 

In conclusion, it was so hard that I couldn't even do it.

To summarize, I put a speck of asphalt (sample 3) in a lot of toluene and I put a lot of asphalt into basically a drop of toluene (sample 1).

2) Mix the toluene and asphalt accordingly.

3) Place small amounts of each sample into three vials.

4) Using a controlled pipet, carefully place one small drop in a circle on the MALDI plate three times, which tests repetition. Do that for each different concentration.

5) Test sample in MALDI. (But programming MALDI is another 30 steps...)

IT'S FINALLY TIME FOR MALDI. But the day allotted for the testing was the day I had to go to my periodontist for a check up appointment. So... NEXT WEEK for sure.

Now, it's time to catch you up on what I've been doing for the other 90 hours this week. Well, I've finally decided to cover up the only blank wall left in my house with another painting. So thankfully, I finally have enough time to concentrate and finish this by the end of this month!

A deer.. Maybe an elk?

Until next week,

Seerat Jajj

P.S. Thank you for making me "Blog of the Week" last week! Just want to take this time to say thank you to all my fans. ;)

Week One: The Start to Something New

Good morning everyone!

In this beautiful week in Arizona, I broke free from my piles of books and started a new adventure at Arizona State University.

For those who still don't quite understand what exactly I'm researching, these posts over the next few weeks will hopefully clarify what I'm researching, where I am, and why I'm researching it. So let's get started with what I did this week.

After another 45 minute drive to ASU, I wondered why I picked civil engineering. To be completely honest, before I started this project in August, I had NO IDEA how relevant engineering was to our community. I was bound to the stereotypical image of engineers as the computer savvy person you call when your laptop crashes. Boy, was I wrong.

My on-site mentor, Akshay, began explaining what civil engineers do and their impact on our daily lives. Akshay Gundla is a graduate student at ASU researching the modeling of asphalt concrete before it is used to make the road we all travel on.

Here's a picture of the lab I'm working in:

In the first day, I learned what aggregates are used to make a sturdy road. Before, I thought the road was just rocks "glued" to together by concrete. I was essentially right, but I learned that it's lot more than just mixing some rocks. 

Because of the diverse weather situations, each state (or even each county) has different types of roads. Therefore, civil engineers must create different samples of asphalt concrete with varying amounts of saturates, aromatics, resins, and asphaltenes to compliment the conditions so the road stays steady without becoming brittle. A sample containing many solid aggregates looks similar to this:

Then, researchers have to test the sample in a Pressure Aging Vessel (PAV), which creates the hostile environment asphalt would endure in the span of three to seven years. Basically, it tests the durability of the sample.

Pressure Aging Vessel

(It kind of looks like what my mother uses to make South Indian food)

So this week, I learned how to create the sample of asphalt concrete and how to age the sample. After testing the validity of the sample, we then create new samples that will be used for MALDI! But let's save some of the fun for next week!

Anyway, some may ask, "Seerat, if you're only working three hours a day, what are you doing the rest of the time?" Well, I have finally started to do the one and only thing BASIS did not teach me: cooking. This week, I made oatmeal pancakes (which were ok, I don't recommend, just stick to chocolate chip pancakes), veggie and barbecue pizza (which were great, definitely recommend), and caramelized apple muffins (eh). 

So, this week I got a lot accomplished in the lab... and in life. Keep reading to see what I find out about MALDI (and life). 

Seerat Jajj

Introduction: A Little Bit About Me

Hi everyone!

I'm Seerat Jajj, a senior at BASIS Scottsdale High School, and welcome to my first post. I'm very excited to share my project with you and what I will be researching for the next few months.

Earlier this year, I was accepted into ASU’s research program for high school students called Science and Engineering Experience (SCENE) where I am placed under Dr. Shane Underwood in the Civil Engineering Department. With the help of his graduate student Akshay Gundla, I am studying the multi-scale mechanistic modeling of asphalt concrete, using MALDI (Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization) imaging technology, which characterizes the shape of asphalt. Specifically, MALDI-TOF MS, which stands for Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry. 

By researching the different modeling of asphalt, it is possible to benefit long-term sustainability of the roads, which would inevitably bring down the taxes that are used to finance construction of pavements. And I know we all want lower taxes! Although this technology can be used in the engineering field, MALDI imaging is also used for tissue and other single-celled organisms to provide information about the spatial distribution of specific distribution.

However, civil engineering isn't the career I had planned out for me. After taking AP Psychology, I decided that I wanted to study biomedical engineering with an emphasis on neuroscience and become a physician, so researching civil engineering was the opposite of what I wanted to do. In order to learn more about my interests, I will also be incorporating a biological discipline by interacting with other biology professors at Arizona State University. I am researching how MALDI-TOF MS can be used to diagnose life-threatening diseases, analyze peptides and proteins, detection of biological warfare agents, and modeling asphalt.

Anyway, that's it for today! I can't wait to learn more about how to make roads!! 

Thanks for reading and see you soon!