Marc Scimonelli
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Hometown: Sykesville, MD
College:
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Major: Chemical Engineering, Chemistry
Minor
Year: Junior
Favorite Story From
China: So the Chinese language does not translate directly
to English. The grammar structure is completely backwards from ours and the
characters for certain words are usually descriptions of the object. For instance,
llama in Chinese translates directly to grass-mud-horse, panda is bear-cat
and giraffe is long-necked-deer. Well, we were learning the difference between
four words that varied only by tone. In discussing a common mispronunciation
of rain, we were cautioned not to say it with a certain emphasis or we would
be saying “foolish donkey.” Confused, I asked again and was assured that they
mean foolish donkey. Thinking for a moment I 
asked “do you mean ‘dumb*@!’” That was
the winner. I’ll laugh about that for a long time. Also, the Chinese characters
for fume hood directly translate to stink-cabinet.
What I missed most about the US: First and foremost my wife. You get
very used to having someone there to give you a hug on a bad day. After that, I
really missed bacon.
What will I miss about China: The variety of food: There were so
many styles and flavors and nothing compares. Nothing is overly sweetened and
you could actually taste the flavors of the components of the dishes but they
still worked together. Processed foods are not popular in China and the people
are very demanding about the quality of their food. If you go to a restaurant
in China during lunch or dinner and it is not busy, move on. There is a reason
that the locals don’t go there and beRes it price, flavor or cleanliness, you should still go
elsewhere.
Research Project: Mo doped BiVO4 photoelectrodes were prepared on FTO (SnO2: F on glass) substrates by metal-organic decomposition method. Production parameters including solution maturation time, relative humidity, number of BiVO4 layers, layer uniformity and oxygen exposure were optimized to produce samples of highest photocurrent density. Samples were analyzed by cyclic voltammetry, XPS, XRD, UV-Vis, and SEM. Production time for high performing samples was reduced from 8 to 10 days to 14 hours, oxygen and humidity were eliminated as having beneficial effects on the metal-organic solution and optimal BiVO4 thickness was determined as 2 layers. It was also discovered that low temperature storage of metal-organic solution resulted in significant increases in photocurrent.
Photo taken from my lab at Nanjing University as I worked late into the evening with my samples one day.