Example Abstract for Physical Sciences and Mathematics
1st Position, Eighteenth Annual Graduate Exhibition
Jason Robert Stairs
College: Eberly College of Science
Department: Chemistry
Title: The Study of Delayed Ionization in the Newest Form
of Carbon, the Bucky Ball
Abstract:
As children, we learned that carbon has two elemental states in nature. The first state is graphite, and the second is diamond. Graphite is composed of sheets of carbon atoms layered on top of each other and is most familiar as the "lead" in our pencils. The second state may be the more popular of the two. Coal that is trapped under ground, in conditions of extreme heat and pressure, forces the carbon atoms to arrange into a very rigid crystal structure referred to as adamantane, forming on of the hardest and most precious stones on earth, the diamond.
In 1985, H. Kroto, R. Smalley and R. Curl, Jr. discovered a third elemental state of carbon and they named it the Buckminster Fullerene, or Bucky ball for short. The Bucky ball is a soccer-ball shaped molecule made up of 60 carbon atoms. Since their initial serendipitous observation in the lab, the Bucky ball has also been observed in nature (viz. outer space and meteorites). Recently scientists have proposed that the Bucky ball may have played a role in the formation of life on earth and its discovery in general has sparked a whole new realm of scientific research in the world of nanotechnology. For their discovery, the trio of Kroto, Smalley and Curl were awarded the Chemistry Nobel Prize in 1996.
The Bucky ball has a wealth of new and interesting characteristics including the phenomenon of delayed ionization currently being studied in our laboratory. Usually, when an atom or molecule attains its ionization energy, the electron leaves the atom in about one femtosecond (1x10-15 s). However, for reasons not yet fully understood, the ionization proces of a few molecules, including the Bucky ball and a class of molecules discovered by A. W. Castleman, Jr., the Metallocarbohedrenes, or Met-Cars for short, can take up to a few microseconds (1x10-6 s). That is about one billion times slower than what is expected. Using a new technique that I developed in the lab, I am trying to further elucidate the cause of this most interesting phenomenon in order to further the understanding of basic chemistry (i.e. ionization) and to more fully understand this wonderful new elemental state of carbon which possesses so many new possibilities for humankind.
The comparison of data obtained from the study of the Bucky ball will be compared to that of the Met-Car discovered by A. W. Castelman, Jr., as well as a brief presentation of future studies to be conducted in the lab.