Laura Stegner

I spent Spring 2016 working part time in the BioMicroSystms Lab at UC while attending classes. During that time, I was able to help one of Dr. Ian Papautsky's PhD students run experiments and prepare to defend her thesis. This was my first experience in a lab, so I had a lot to learn about proper lab procedure and documentation. In July 2016, I presented an undergraduate research poster at the American Chemistry Society Central Regional Meeting in Northern Kentucky.

 

We were testing an electrochemical sensor plated with platinum electrodes to find the concentration of the heavy metal manganese in a small sample. The process used electron voltammetry, a two-step process. In the pre-concentration step, after a sample is placed on the sensor, a positive potential is applied to the electrodes to accumulate target manganese ions. Then, the stripping step oxidizes the metals back into the solution by scanning in the opposite direction of the pre-concentration potential.