When In Doubt, Roll It Out

Today our lab protocol was titled "Cathode construction." Assemble a cathode--piece of cake right ? It's one of those things easier said than done. My lab partner called texted in sick, so it was just me and the phage-plated-iron-phosphate-and-gold-nanoparticle active material that we had created days before. Pearl vs cathode construction protocol= story time!

1) Weigh the dried active material that you prepared during the previous laboratory session. Calculate the amount of Super P and PTFE you will need to add to your active material.
Easy enough. Jifa taught us how to use the weigh boats correctly and use the anti-static gun (which looked like something out of a scifi movie and looked like it would shoot needles at you).

2) Transfer your active material into a mortar and grind by pressing the pestle into the material while moving it in a circular motion.
On my way from the weighing room back to the labspace where my mortar & pestle were, I happened to trip on a box that was lying in the hallway. Wheeee there went .0002mg of active material and super P into thin air.

3-9) Transfer your active material into a mortar and grind by pressing the pestle into the material while moving it in a circular motion. Add Super P to the mortar with your active material and grind to mix. Transfer your active material + Super P mixture to the center of a steel plate. Add the PTFE to the top of your piled active material + Super P mixture. Use the roller to incorporate the PTFE into the active material + Super P.
This required some elbow grease. I saw Jifa pipetting some ethanol to another group's powdery mixture to make it easier to roll so I thought I'd do the same. But, in typical Pearl fashion, I overestimated and added too much ethanol. I rolled and rolled..

but realized I needed to wait for some of the ethanol to evaporate in order for my grainy puddle to congeal a bit *tick tock*

In the end, despite my minor mishaps, I managed to roll and punch out six cathode circles, enough to make six coin batteries! I gained troubleshooting experience and was even able to give pointers to the yellow and pink team on their cathode construction. All is well that ends well :)