A rumble in the distance. Big things are coming.

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  • Also, one more thing that would be good to figure out. Does adding graphene change the melting temperature of the plastic?
  • Yup. built 2 out of random junk so just need to improve them now. Then onto a thermal battery that generates electricity from heat. Also made zinc sulfide and then used it to make a solar panel of sorts using the transparent graphene plastic and zinc sulfide. The batch was crappy though since it was a first try. Tomorrow i'll go for a better batch and go from there. So i'll be making super caps, paint on electronics, paint on electroluminescent stuff. It'll be good. 
  • Oh and i'm looking into super conductors now. If I can make one in my oven that runs on liquid nitrogen it'd be amazing.
  • What in particular are you doing for the thermal battery?
  • there seems to be a few things that work as thermal batteries. I'll be exploring each and seeing which works best. One uses a 4 layer system where you have 2 different metal collectors with 2 different semi conductors in the middle, zinc oxide and chrome oxide works well apperantly with coper and alumnium. I need to read into more how this works. There's also the zinc sulfid solar thing which could mean a block type solar panel that could take advantage of 3d space and collect more light
  • edited October 2015
    I heard awhile back about a system called powerfelt that used CNT suspended in plastic to generate electricity from heat. You just have to create a temperature differential and you get quite a bit of power. Link
  • NFC chip implanted. Video to follow. 
  • video is up for those interested. Hand it already feeling much better so I'll get some work done in the lab later and if i do anything exciting i'll be sure to post it.
  • Spent the morning in the SEM lab and got some AMAZING pictures of some of the nanoparticles. LINK to the gallery I images the supposidly hollow spheres and couldn't see much. would've needed the TEM to see if they're really hollow or spend more time looking for a broken one.

    I can officially make Sulfides now. Made copper sulfide and zinc sulfide. Curious to see if i can dope one with the other to make luminescent powder. And more importantly, LED paint. Or super capcitors. w/e 
  • edited November 2015
    Ok update time. I've been working on the graphene reinforced plastic for weeks now. I ordered some abs pellets and they dissolved beautifully. Added straight graphite to the mix and it made a plastic that was weak and crumby. So i threw the whole mix into the sonicator and just kept running it everytime i'd come downstairs or was in the lab. After a few weeks of this it had accumulated enough time in the sonicator that sufficient graphene had formed. I the poured it into a mould and let it dry out. This morning checked it out. it's now a thin piece about half a mm and is quiet strong and very flexible with not crumbling. I'm on to something and robert murray smith just showed off his so I now have something to compare to. His could stop a .45 at 23 paces. And was by the looks of it about a cm thick. I wanna see if i can get it at least that good. 

    TiN I'm still working on this and am getting closer and closer. I've got almost everything working and the titanium plate im using has turned a distinct yellow so it's now a matter of adjustments to get that TiN to fly at the target. Will keep working on it

    Gold/aluminum evap The metal evaporation chamber is coming along and should be finished today. Would mean that i could do stronger gold coatings or an aluminum base coat for electroplating. 

    Diamond still working on it. Should have the chamber finished today. may even give it a try.

    Nanotubes Easily my scariest project i'm almost ready to give it a try. I'm using a tube furnace to get to about 700 C then I'll be slowly letting in a mixture of acetylene hydrogen and argon. I worry about it going bang but it should be fine. I'm mostly working on safety stuff so it's safe to run the thing. Should be going by next weekend. Needed check valvues so i don't mix the gases prematurely.

    Transdermal Made other threads about this and glims mentioned it. I needed a lower voltage and less acid cause it was eating my titanium and I needed a better source of calcium nitrate since mine required the use of nitric acid which is expensive and hard to come by up here. The HA will be done soon. The TiN as mentioned above should hopefully see some use soon since it would mean the price point for the transdermal would be way lower. Will keep working.

    Thermocell/graphene electronics On hold for the time being. I have to finish a few projects before i can mess with it as they are more important but i'll start playing with this in december once school is done. 
  • Made a new video and a long blog post updating things


  • New video up. This week highly conductive copper sulfide nanowires. 

  • Crystals yes, nanowires no. Nanowires you would not be able to visualize using an optical microscope. Hence the "nano".
  • If you want to work at the nano level, I am pretty sure you need a scanning electron microscope for viewing, and a electrostatic means of moving atoms. Let me do some digging and I might be able to from the great and vast mines of data dig you up a way over simplified means of building and working on the nano level. Plus as a added bonus it all comes from a crack pot time traveler! But it does make sense what I would be linking you to.
  • Microtubes sounds less interesting but fair point. I was reading a paper about a small modification to produce nano/microtubes. Will probably give it a try soon. it's pretty simple, just add PVA and sodium hydroxide. 
  • Lol I'd take less false and less interesting over the alternative any day of the week. Look forward to your update.
  • Made a new video showing that superworms can and love to eat styrofoam. Gonna expand on this in the future for sure since it was such an easy and interesting project. LINK
  • I dont... I don't even know what to say about that. My mouth was open the whole time. I have a lot of these guys just sitting in a critter carrier for my reptiles. My wife thinks it's insane she can't wrap her head around the fact the the worms are actually eating it.
  • so give it a try. I'm ordering a few thousand for a follow up video. Got a whole system designed to maximize the efficiency of this and generate loads of dirt.
  • I'm definitely going to Ill probably start with meal worms. A 100ct container dedicated to it. Do you think itnwould have any ill effects if they are fed to reptiles after? I would probably try and "flush" their system anyway but if I don't that would be better.
  • If you flush them with oat bran for two weeks it should be fine. Someone commented saying they've been doing this with their chickens for years. Feed the worms Styrofoam for a while then switch them over to bran before feeding them
  • That's kind of what I figured I would have to do.

    Just think special dumpsters filled with styrofoam and super worms in the future.
  • I've got just such a bin planned out. Gonna be a whole self contained ecosystem. Just add water and styrofoam. Building it this weekend then ordering the bugs. My roommate was worried we don't have enough styrofoam. So i reminded him it's the most common plastic in use. I can just go to every local business and be like "do you have styrofoam you're gonna throw out anyway". Then I'll turn it all into fertilizer and grow something in it. 
  • I'm interested to see how long it takes the worms to break down something denser/harder, like HDPS. Is there a limit to how hard a styrene the worms can break down? Do the density and hardness effect the speed at which the worms consume an item linearly, or do they effect more of a curve? 

    Have you tested the "fertilizer" to see what it contains, and how sustainable it's use is?

    Lastly, can we deploy these things onto that giant floating island of plastic in the pacific and have them make an island somewhere?
  • The giant plastic island is more like just a high plastic density area of ocean. The way it's portrayed is a little misleading... It's not worm friendly.

    However, the thing that is breaking down the plastic is actually the bacteria in the gut. The worms are just mindlessly chewing on anything they get near. If you culture this bacteria, and make is resistant to salinity, then you have something.
  • edited January 2016
    If you were to let an engineered organism like that out in the oceans it could certainly make boating interesting. Would't be able to use styrofoam anymore cause it would break down quickly. Probably better to collect the trash and break it down in a big bioreactor. 

    The nice thing about unthinking worms is that the process and be stopped quickly and easily with a flame thrower or some insecticide. 

    The plan is to have their droppings drop through a screen and collect in a bucket. May even put some regular earth worms in the bucket to break things down further. Then just mix in some vermiculite and you've got great soil in theory. Also going to mix some dermestid beetles in with the superworms. They're eat any shells or worms that die but won't eat anything else. May eat the styofoam as well. Would be more neccsary if you had more than 2000 but even still a few in there to keep the thing self contained can't hurt. I'll probably have to add a bit of dog food for the dermestids if the superworms don't shed or die enough but i'll adjust as it goes.
  • the way that i see it, having a problem with things being cleaned up because you can't use your toxic material anymore is a non issue. suck it up styrofoam junkies :D
  • I'm gonna go ahead and say that releasing anything engineered into the wild is a bad idea.
  • Lol sounds good to me. I only worry that we'll have to come up with even more harsh materials to combat that.
  • New video is up. I'm going to be doing a lot of stuff with fuel cells so I used this time as an opportunity to demonstrate how sodium hydroxide is made via the same process/cell design. Its really easy on all you need is baking soda and water.

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