Each year, students from Utica's Thomas R. Proctor High School visit Hamilton for a hands-on science experience. The students are part the Young Scholars Liberty Partnerships Program, a collaborative project between Utica College and the Utica City School District. They spend their time at Hamilton visiting labs, seeing demonstrations (and sometimes doing their own), and listening to talks by some of the faculty. The Hamilton experience is only one part of the Young Scholars program, which provides academic, social and cultural enrichment to students who are identified as possessing the potential for success in academics, but who may not achieve their potential due to social and economic risk factors.
Last year, Assistant Professor of Chemistry Camille Jones decided to extend the idea and ask the Young Scholars Program to nominate students to work in her lab for the whole summer. She wrote a grant for the American Chemical Society's Project SEED, which was created in 1968 to help economically disadvantaged high school students expand their education and career outlook. This summer, Tyriek Burgess, a rising junior at Proctor, is working with Professor Jones on research into the structure of clathrate hydrates, a unique chemical compound made mostly of water molecules.
Clathrate hydrates, which look like "dirty snow," are made up of a large network of water molecules held together by hydrogen bonds. When a mixture of water and an organic solvent freezes, the water molecules form a structure that contains open cavities or "cages." Each of these cages is just large enough to hold a small molecule, so a gas molecule such as methane can become trapped inside. The clathrate hydrates found on the ocean floor and in permafrost are suspected to hold more methane energy than there is in the fossil fuels we currently have access to, but an efficient method of extraction has yet to be found.
However, "there are some serious scientific and technical issues behind the bright ideas," says Professor Jones. Although clathrate hydrates are potentially very useful, some of their properties have yet to be determined, such as how stable they are, how they form, and in certain cases, how to keep them from forming. Since they develop in areas with a great deal of water near the freezing point, clathrate hydrates can clog natural gas pipelines in cold regions. By continuing to study the compounds, we can take advantage of their uses and reduce their obstacles.
This summer, Professor Jones and Burgess are using density to study how the molecules arrange themselves as clathrate hydrates form. Using methane is impractical, so Burgess is working with liquid propylene oxide, which mixes easily with water, to conduct two different tests. The first uses an instrument called a vibrating-tube densitometer to measure the solution's vibration frequency, from which it calculates density. The second project uses a laser to obtain a Raman vibrational spectrum of different concentrations of propylene oxide in water. Burgess then plots the readings from the different concentrations on the same graph to determine how the presence of water affects the ability of propylene oxide molecules to vibrate. The results of the work that Project SEED students have done at Hamilton will eventually head for submission; however Professor Jones notes that the project is part of a long-term process of scientific discovery that "takes its own time." When a substantial enough body of data and analysis has been obtained to justify presentation to the academic community, the work will be submitted.
Burgess says that he enjoys the freedom he has to work at his own pace, while still being able to look to Professor Jones for information and tips about procedures. The hardest aspect of his job is to understand the chemistry behind the work he's doing, but he says that Professor Jones has been good at breaking down concepts to explain them. Conducting the entire process of the tests himself, from mixing the chemicals to testing and analyzing them, has also allowed him to learn a lot about chemistry in the lab. The practical experience will serve him well in the future, he says. Burgess plans to apply to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, to major in aeronautical engineering.
-- by Laura Bramley
Last year, Assistant Professor of Chemistry Camille Jones decided to extend the idea and ask the Young Scholars Program to nominate students to work in her lab for the whole summer. She wrote a grant for the American Chemical Society's Project SEED, which was created in 1968 to help economically disadvantaged high school students expand their education and career outlook. This summer, Tyriek Burgess, a rising junior at Proctor, is working with Professor Jones on research into the structure of clathrate hydrates, a unique chemical compound made mostly of water molecules.
Clathrate hydrates, which look like "dirty snow," are made up of a large network of water molecules held together by hydrogen bonds. When a mixture of water and an organic solvent freezes, the water molecules form a structure that contains open cavities or "cages." Each of these cages is just large enough to hold a small molecule, so a gas molecule such as methane can become trapped inside. The clathrate hydrates found on the ocean floor and in permafrost are suspected to hold more methane energy than there is in the fossil fuels we currently have access to, but an efficient method of extraction has yet to be found.
However, "there are some serious scientific and technical issues behind the bright ideas," says Professor Jones. Although clathrate hydrates are potentially very useful, some of their properties have yet to be determined, such as how stable they are, how they form, and in certain cases, how to keep them from forming. Since they develop in areas with a great deal of water near the freezing point, clathrate hydrates can clog natural gas pipelines in cold regions. By continuing to study the compounds, we can take advantage of their uses and reduce their obstacles.
This summer, Professor Jones and Burgess are using density to study how the molecules arrange themselves as clathrate hydrates form. Using methane is impractical, so Burgess is working with liquid propylene oxide, which mixes easily with water, to conduct two different tests. The first uses an instrument called a vibrating-tube densitometer to measure the solution's vibration frequency, from which it calculates density. The second project uses a laser to obtain a Raman vibrational spectrum of different concentrations of propylene oxide in water. Burgess then plots the readings from the different concentrations on the same graph to determine how the presence of water affects the ability of propylene oxide molecules to vibrate. The results of the work that Project SEED students have done at Hamilton will eventually head for submission; however Professor Jones notes that the project is part of a long-term process of scientific discovery that "takes its own time." When a substantial enough body of data and analysis has been obtained to justify presentation to the academic community, the work will be submitted.
Burgess says that he enjoys the freedom he has to work at his own pace, while still being able to look to Professor Jones for information and tips about procedures. The hardest aspect of his job is to understand the chemistry behind the work he's doing, but he says that Professor Jones has been good at breaking down concepts to explain them. Conducting the entire process of the tests himself, from mixing the chemicals to testing and analyzing them, has also allowed him to learn a lot about chemistry in the lab. The practical experience will serve him well in the future, he says. Burgess plans to apply to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, to major in aeronautical engineering.
-- by Laura Bramley
