CENTENNIAL HONORS COLLEGE
Western Illinois University
Undergraduate Research Day 2016
PosterPresentation
SolidStateSynthesisofCuS2
AnastasiaDeLeon
FacultyMentor:BrianBellott
ForensicChemistry
This project is aimed at the high temperature solid state synthesis of CuS2. Our goal is to develop an
efficientsynthesisofCuS2whichcanbeconductedbyundergraduatestudentsduringthecourseoftwo
3hourteachinglaboratories.Theprocessofpreformingthesereactionscanbebrokendownintosteps.
Firstthereactionsvesselsneededforthesynthesismustbemade.Wemakethesevesselsbyusinga
methane-oxygentorchandstockglasstubing.Oncethevesselsaremadetheyarecoatedtoprotectthe
reagentsinsideofthetube.Thenextstepistoloadthechemicalsintothevesselandsealthevessel
undervacuum.Thisallowsforalmostallthecontaminantswhicharedetrimentaltothereactiontobe
removed.Finallythevesselsareplacedintoacomputercontrolledhightemperaturefurnacetoallow
thereactionstotakeplace.Typicaltemperaturesthesereactionsareconductedatareover500ºC.The
reactionstake1weekafterwhichthevesselsareopenedandthecontentsareexamined.Usingsimple
opticalmicroscopesstudentswillselectsinglecrystalswhichtheycancharacterizebyFTIRandresistivity
measurements.Thistypeofbasichightemperaturesolidstatechemistryisusedeverydaytosynthesize
newandmorepowerfuldigitalcomponents,magnetics,andopticaldevices.