Posted by on Feb 21, 2019 in Posts, Student News

Sometimes the best way to learn and best way to teach is to make a mistake! At least that’s what Dr. Gerdon is telling himself. When the gold electrode on a QCM crystal needs to be cleaned to produce a hydrophobic surface, we often use a mixture of chemicals called piranha (Caution! This is needs to be done in a fume hood very cautiously!). It helps to give the QCM crystal a cursory clean before using piranha, otherwise you can end up depositing insoluble material on the surface that just won’t seem to come off (see the picture above). Now we have good example of what not to do when cleaning QCM crystals! Dr. Gerdon hopes to get back in the lab soon!