• Question: Can you explain the Me and my work area in simpler words?

    Asked by enchanted to Rowena on 10 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Rowena Fletcher-Wood

      Rowena Fletcher-Wood answered on 10 Mar 2014:

      Hi Enchanted – I can have a go!

      I have two focusses: shape and charge.

      With charge, I want iron (Fe) to carry a +2 charge. Elements are charged when they gain or lose electrons to make full or empty electron shells. Iron can be +3, +2 or 0 but mostly wants to be +3. For my work, I need it to be +2. 0 is okay.

      +2 iron reacts with chromium +6 which is a cancer-causing water pollutant. The products are +3 iron and +3 chromium, which is actually a nutrient used by the human body.

      +2 iron is green and +3 iron is brown rust. When I have my samples out in the open lab, they slowly change from green to brown, meaning they are spoilt. I have to keep them in a “glovebox” which is a giant box filled with argon so there is no air to turn the samples brown.

      The other part of my work involves making sieve materials that fit chromium +3 inside snugly so I can get it out of the water to put back into industry.

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