IHTFPhD

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TROPHY CASE


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A possible solution to plastic waste? by Carduceusin askscience

[–]IHTFPhD 0 points1 point ago

You should try it in your backyard.

Seriously, this is how people become very rich.

Good news everyone! Materials research funding gains (modest) momentum by elephrhinoin materials

[–]IHTFPhD 0 points1 point ago

Cool! Our group is only starting electrolyte work, so maybe there is opportunity to collaborate, but you should have your advisor speak to my advisor - I'm not really in a position where I could ask to start these things haha. Although our group hasn't made all the predictions yet, I'm sure there is a lot of theoretical work in your specific fields that have made predictions. You should be very careful of the quality though, there can be some crap in the computational field.

Studying for the GRE - Vocab is KILLING ME by kippersin GradSchool

[–]IHTFPhD 0 points1 point ago

I have a very similar experience. I studied only three days for the GRE, I just wrote down sentences for ~500 words, linking the word to a very personal experience of mine. For example, for "Ascetic" I would write "[Insert christian friend] is very ascetic about his religion", etc. This list came out to be about 3 pages front and back, and I just read this for three days straight. In the end about 7 words came up on the GRE, which to be honest, probably help me answer 4-5 questions I couldn't have before, which probably raised my score ~100 points.

Also, don't try to be a hero. Shoot for a score around 500-600 if you are going into science.

(Chemistry) Solar Cell Dye Experiment! by DrMarkMDin askscience

[–]IHTFPhD 0 points1 point ago

Yeah that's wrong. I mean, you probably will still get higher performance, since you might increase your current (unless the binding sites are already saturated with the tea).

(Chemistry) Solar Cell Dye Experiment! by DrMarkMDin askscience

[–]IHTFPhD 0 points1 point ago

Exactly

(Chemistry) Solar Cell Dye Experiment! by DrMarkMDin askscience

[–]IHTFPhD 0 points1 point ago

Okay so first off, I have very little knowledge of DSSCs, but I do know a lot of materials science and electronic structure. My only statement is that the concentration of anthrocyanin won't change the voltage of your cell, which seems like what you asked for in the beginning. Since I'm sure you know some simple quantum mechanics, a reasonable example is the following: say you're trying to increase the energy of your n1-n2 transition in the hydrogen atom. If you're using the same energy photons, it doesn't matter how many of them you have, you'll only be able to get the n1-n2 energy, just more frequently (more current in DSSCs). Only if you find a higher energy photon can you activate, say n1-n3 or n1-n4 transitions. This requires a different dye, not more of it.

Did that make sense?

(Chemistry) Solar Cell Dye Experiment! by DrMarkMDin askscience

[–]IHTFPhD 0 points1 point ago

Having more charge carriers will only increase your current but not your voltage.

From wikipedia: In theory, the maximum voltage generated by such a cell is simply the difference between the (quasi-)Fermi level of the TiO2 and the redox potential of the electrolyte, about 0.7 V under solar illumination conditions (Voc). That is, if an illuminated DSSC is connected to a voltmeter in an "open circuit", it would read about 0.7 V.

So your real material parameter is the redox potential of the electrolyte, which is not exactly tabulated. Your best bet is the literature. Check these out:

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jp053260h http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2008/EE/b809672d

To be honest your instructor is probably trying to make you do the hard work of finding a good dye for him :D. I think that because that's exactly what I would do in the instructors shoes.

Good news everyone! Materials research funding gains (modest) momentum by elephrhinoin materials

[–]IHTFPhD 0 points1 point ago

It's not Harvard who's working with Wolfram, it's Wolfram who is working with Harvard, specifically I'm 100% sure it's Wolfram working with Alan Aspuru Gruzik and his screensaver that searches for organic PVs:

http://aspuru.chem.harvard.edu/the-clean-energy-project/

Good news everyone! Materials research funding gains (modest) momentum by elephrhinoin materials

[–]IHTFPhD 0 points1 point ago

My advisor is actually the founder of the Materials Genome project. Our project used to be the Materials Genome project, but then Obama took the name for the Materials Genome Initiative, which my advisor started with the White House. Now our work is just the materialsproject. You can find our stuff online at http://www.materialsproject.org/ Lots of really valuable stuff there, take a look - it's only going to get bigger.

You can also AMA :D

Edit: Here's some more light reading in the Economist and in Science: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/335/6075/1434.full

http://www.economist.com/node/21552895

PI just told me that he's cutting 5 weeks of my summer pay. Any advice? by indozein GradSchool

[–]IHTFPhD 7 points8 points ago

I know it sounds like a time to be angry, but that's not going to help - I would sit him down and ask as civilly as possible what are his options to find you more funding, and what you can do to help. I mean, he must realize how much fucking dick that sucks (5 weeks is like ~2500-3000 dollars), and as long as you maintain composure and make sure that he knows that he needs to do something about being so irresponsible, we can all come to a nice conclusion.

Boy that was passive aggressive.

Storm Spirit dodging snipers ulti in 0.1 seconds by DooooDleZin DotA2

[–]IHTFPhD -1 points0 points ago

oooops haha

Tech Religion Survey - some very interesting results between dorms and majors by CinnamonApplesaucein mit

[–]IHTFPhD 0 points1 point ago

I'm on chrome.... I'll try firefox

Storm Spirit dodging snipers ulti in 0.1 seconds by DooooDleZin DotA2

[–]IHTFPhD 1 point2 points ago*

That doom and pudge don't look so happy about the dodge.

Are the servers down? 5/10/2012 6:00PM PST by lollermittensin DotA2

[–]IHTFPhD 1 point2 points ago

Appears so

DotA 2 - The International - Venue announced by Xavier227in DotA2

[–]IHTFPhD 1 point2 points ago

My hope is that they're working on them in parallel and in 8 weeks they'll release 16 heros, and then hopefully release 10 more heros after 4 more weeks or something hopefully awesome I hope hopefully?

The Single Most Important Concept In Dota by dotamakesmesadin DOTA

[–]IHTFPhD 4 points5 points ago

You should post this in r/dota2, which has a much larger community :D

Dota 2 is bigger than Counter-Strike: Source and Skyrim and it’s not even out yet | PC Gamer by zkhilin DotA2

[–]IHTFPhD 13 points14 points ago

At peak times in the US Counter-Strike: Source and the king of Steam, Counter-Strike 1.6, retain the upper hand. Dota 2 overtakes both during those downtime hours, which suggests a strong, growing international community.

Actually it's just us playing into the early early morning :D

Is there a positive pressure at which sound is impossible? by frozenfirein askscience

[–]IHTFPhD 0 points1 point ago

Well, sound is acoustical phonons, but optical phonons might not transmit a signal. It's not a pressure thing so much as a resonance thing.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/1D_normal_modes_%28280_kB%29.gif

^ Top is optical, bottom is acoustical

Chemistry for Materials Science by wg1994in AskEngineers

[–]IHTFPhD 2 points3 points ago

Chem 101/102 is so important to the rest of your 4 years, if you go in based off of high school knowledge you may fall behind your peers who did take the university level chemistry. Reference tchufnagel's comment below.

Chemistry for Materials Science by wg1994in AskEngineers

[–]IHTFPhD 3 points4 points ago

PhD in MSE here. A 5 on the AP chemistry exam doesn't say too much - I think you can get a 5 with 60% on the other AP tests. If you're a boss in chemistry, no need to skip. But college chemistry is usually more rigorous than what you're used to in high school, especially if you go to a top-tier university.

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