Up to our Heads' in Depth Profiling

Another busy week for the strathSEEA team. The week began with some analysis of the micro-hardness testing carried out in the previous week. This through up the odd unexpected result. So instead of beginning the analysis write-up, the optical microscopy to investigate the depth of the carbon layer was started.

This investigation required some additional sample preparation though, a process known as etching. This turned out to be a rather troublesome process, with a day being wasted due to problems with the machinery and our electrical knowledge letting us down.

Not being a team who gets down easily, we had a very productive next few days, competing all of the microscopy investigations with enough time to eventually complete the XRD write up!

For next week we have a meeting arranged with our advisor to go over our findings so far, so currently we are focussed on compiling some parts of the report, particularly the analysis sections. Next week could also see the end of the planned experimental side of the project being completed, with the SEM being booked for a few days. The end is in sight!