• Question: Which new materials have you made so far?

    Asked by to Veronica, Jemma on 16 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Jemma Rowlandson

      Jemma Rowlandson answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      Hi guys,

      All my materials are made from carbon which is a chemical element. It’s the black stuff that forms when you burn anything, like a piece of wood. I use two types of materials, they’ve been made before by other scientists but what I’m researching with them is new.

      The first is a porous carbon. This means it has lots and lots of tiny holes. The holes are so tiny you could fit 10,000 of them in the width of one strand of hair! These holes are important because more tiny holes my sample has, the more hydrogen it can soak up.

      The second one is quite new and it’s called a carbon onion. These are made of lots of spheres of carbon stacked inside one another, a bit like one of those Russian dolls. They have lots of layers which is why they’re named after an onion!

    • Photo: Veronica Celorrio

      Veronica Celorrio answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      Hello Ayfer0608!

      I have made loads! Right now, I made oxides, which means that I mix metals on the first row of transitions metals in the periodic table (Fe, Ni, Co, Mn, Cu, Zn) between them and make a compound which also includes oxygen.

      However, before my actual project, I used to work with novel metals like Pt, Pd, Au…

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