LWE ESRP Team

Lincoln-Way East students are again participating in Argonne National Laboratory’s Exemplary Student Research Program.

East’s students will work with Argonne scientist, Dr. Xuedan Ma at the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM), to prepare a research proposal, design and set up an experiment, gather and analyze data, make conclusions, and prepare a final poster.

This year’s experiment is analyzing the nanoscale properties of gold nanoparticles using UV-Vis spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The purpose of the experiment is to observe the scattering phenomena that the Au NPs exhibit and to identify the relationship between NP size and resonance frequency. The results are anticipated to show a direct correlation between nanosphere diameter and scattering intensity.

The following students are representing East in this year’s program: Seniors- Jacob Shalabi, Greg Kwan, Ritul Soni, Jilllian Ketchen, Asher David, and Erica Strojny, and Juniors- Aidan Dauber and Jillian Mills. This is the fourth year Lincoln-Way East has participated in the program. Previously, the Griffins tested catalytic converters, iron supplements, and heavy metals in sunflowers. Each year their project has had a definite conclusion. The research and design of both their poster and abstract prompted the students’ work to be displayed in the Learning Center at Argonne and on its education website.