Splash!!! I wish it had been me that jumped into cold blue water…Ehh, instead that I had an additional work…my freshly prepared buffer was spilled on a lab floor...it’s quite difficult to focus on important things when outside is the middle of summer. Anyway, opportunity to work in the lab with an air condition had convinced me to continue my science adventure in July. It was good time for reading papers because was really quite everywhere in the Institute. Moreover I carried out studies on diffusion phenomenon within cross-linked and non cross-linked polyelectrolyte multilayer films. I prepared samples for strength tests and for SEM analysis. I’ve started studies of endothelial and smooth muscle cells growth kinetics on PLL/HA films.

This month I did some measurements on Crofer 22APU samples. I recieved a new series of samples from Foundry Research Institute. Aditionally I started working on ZrO2 ceramics recieved from AGH Universsity of Thechnology. The ceramics have tetragonal structure that is very close to cubic and its grain size can be tuned by preparation conditions making it an interesting material for basic sturies and practise in 3D-EBSD.

In July i continued preparation and EBSD microstructure investigations of KoBo extruded samples. First just for sport I prepared sample from some aluminum alloy. Preparation compared to zinc and titanium was a breeze and good results was easily achieved, which was nice change after soft hexagonal materials. Microstructure was similar to this obtained in KoBo-ed titanium (grade2) with twisted grains and clearly visible two main directions around which crystals are oriented. Additionally EBSD IPF maps of those samples tend to have some nice artistic feel to them, and this one was not different.
Second one was sample of grade 4 titanium recently extruded by KoBo method. This one was much more difficult to prepare and finaly only smal areas of good surface was obtained for EBSD mapping. Obtained maps look similar to those from KoBo Grade 2 titanium with two main orientations (strong axial texture) of grains and grain sizes close to 5 micrometers.

My research in July:

During the first month of summer holiday I have focused my interest on analyzing all data and writing first article. I have prepared lots of plots, tables and images needed for the publication. Apart from this, some extra evaluation using TEM, SEM and XRD has been done to gather all information necessary for the article.

Probably nobody reads my posts…Anyway, just in case I will write what’s new in my studies performed during June. Days were really hot and sunny but I was sitting inside the Institute building and writing paper “The chemical and thermal stability of the porous coatings for the controlled cell deposition”. It was also necessary to repeat already performed analysis of endothelial cells growth. I prepared series of samples for further FTIR studies. The culmination of the month was an oral presentation “Stem cells encapsulation – therapeutic potential in cardiovascular disease treatment” given on the IInd Symposium “Stem cells – current state of knowledge“, which was held in the Maria Sklodowska –Curie Memorial Cancer Center and Institute of Oncology (Gliwice, 27.06.2012). It concerned possibility of alginate and other hydrogels application in directed delivery of cardiac stem cells into damaged myocardium.