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Graduate Student Feature: Marie Turano's Conference Experience
First-year graduate student, Marie Turano (right), attends the AVS International Conference with fellow chemist, Rachael Farber.
This past winter, as temperatures began to drop in Chicago, the readied themselves for a trip to a warmer city鈥擭ashville, TN. They were to attend the 63rd International Symposium鈥攁 week-long conference drawing faculty, graduate students, and other researchers from around the world to discuss advancements in vacuum science. First year graduate student, Marie Turano, takes us through the trip and experience of attending the conference, as well as describing the research that led her there.
For starters, what exactly is vacuum science? Specifically, ultra-high vacuum?
鈥淚n our group, we work under ultra-high vacuum conditions; reactions occurring under very low pressures鈥�, explains Marie, 鈥渢hose which occur at a pressure of 1x10-10 Torr. We study metal surfaces under low pressures to mimic the conditions of catalysis, so that we can unravel the reaction mechanisms occurring on the metal/reaction interface鈥�.
At the conference, Marie presented a poster on the process of 鈥渃leaning鈥� the surface of a rhodium crystal鈥擱h(111). The procedure entails dosing the crystal with oxygen, so the crystal surface is completely covered with oxygen. When enough oxygen has reacted with the surface, the excess oxygen can migrate into the subsurface of the crystal. Then, using biased Argon (Ar) ions to gently knock the oxygen atoms off the top layer of the crystal, the surface is cleaned. The result is a Rh(111) crystal that is now 鈥渃lean鈥� of any surface atoms, permitting the group to study the properties of the oxygen beneath the surface. According to Marie, this is when you can begin to ask the bigger questions, such as: does subsurface oxygen play a role in reactions? If so, what is its role? And, how does the presence of subsurface oxygen influence what鈥檚 going on in the surface?
The end goal of the project is to characterize the properties of the subsurface oxygen.
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What about 鈥渂ig picture鈥�? In the end, what鈥�?
Marie nods, understanding the question before it is fully asked, 鈥渨henever people ask me about my research and what we study, I say, 鈥榠t鈥檚 studying reactions similar to those occurring in the catalytic converter in your car鈥�. We are investigating a related process by studying a catalytically active metal, its properties, and then trying to answer fundamental questions relevant to heterogeneous catalysis.鈥�
Although the experiments that Marie and the rest of the Killelea Research Group conduct may seem very specialized, there is actually a variety of research that occurs in the field of vacuum science.
What is one to expect from an international conference all about vacuum science?
鈥淚 wish I鈥檇 brought the program for you,鈥� she says eagerly, as she opens and closes her hands like a book, 鈥渋t was page, after page, after page of talks. It was great to see how others鈥� research relates to what we do. It amazed me how so many people can be researching the same area, but not quite the exact same topic.鈥� For example, while the Killelea Group focuses their studies on molecules on the Rhodium surface, another group may be presenting their findings of a surface analysis of Nickel. The materials, methods, and instrumentation vary from group to group. Everyone has their own unique take. A lot of the same questions are being addressed, but the research presented tackles them from different angles.
The research complements each other, and suddenly the field can become very broad.
There is great benefit in attending conferences such as this one. In listening to other鈥檚 presentations, you can find common ground with other research groups, but more importantly, you get to build connections, gather new information, and find new ways to circumvent a problem you鈥檝e been running into.
To learn more about research conducted by the Killelea Group, go .
The will be hosted in Tampa, FL, Oct 29-Nov 3, 2017.
