Roger Bacon Physics Lounge

Dust was also collected in the Physics Lounge because the bookshelf was riddled with dust. There was so much dust that we believed that it would be possible to view the dust under the XRF. Below is the video of us collecting our first sample.As you can see we continue to use gloves while we collect our samples so that there is no chance of us contaminating it. A second sample was taken from the same place. 

Below is the image of the Sample 1 of the dust we had collected. We felt as a group that this would be a good location to begin analyzing the dust.

As you can see, most of the image was not filled by an element when it was analyzed. This means that they were most likely part of the Carbon tape, since we decided to exclude Carbon from our mapping. Sodium (Na), Aluminum (Al), Silicon (Si), Sulfur (S), Chlorine (Cl), Potassium (K), Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Titanium (Ti), Iron (Fe), these were the elements found in the this dust sample. We believe that the Chlorine came from the cleaning materials used to clean the room. However, we are unsure of how it was able to get on top of the books.

This is the image along with the scanned elements that we found. This helps show that some of the part of the image were not comprised of the found elements. These elements do not include Oxygen and Carbon. The reason for this is that the tape is made of Carbon and the adhesive parts are Oxygen.

The spectrum was created so that we could analyze it to determine which elements were actually discovered. If an element was discovered, there would be a peak where the label is. However, if there is a label but no peak is visible then the element is not there.

We then quantified the elements to see how much of each element was there. This does not include Oxygen and Carbon as mentioned above. As you can see there is an abundant of Chlorine, Aluminium, and Calcium compared to the other elements.

Element	AN	series	[wt.%]	[norm. wt.%]	[norm. at.%]	Error in wt.% (1 Sigma)
Sodium	11	K-series	0.607596871	5.332369872	7.324763432	0.069220997
Magnesium	12	K-series	0.086324654	0.757599333	0.984355385	0.03144771
Aluminium	13	K-series	3.006961504	26.38958772	30.88686535	0.176977152
Silicon	14	K-series	1.799933455	15.79651144	17.76180058	0.106813871
Sulfur	16	K-series	0.812507693	7.130700878	7.022558956	0.056485865
Chlorine	17	K-series	1.910974947	16.7710298	14.93889168	0.092178816
Potassium	19	K-series	0.543853814	4.772950341	3.855112042	0.043151567
Calcium	20	K-series	1.986300483	17.43209907	13.73572564	0.084954204
Titanium	22	K-series	0.379779984	3.333011472	2.198318578	0.037302193
Iron	26	K-series	0.260266334	2.28414007	1.291608359	0.033623212
		Sum:	11.39449974	100	100

This is the area that we have decided to examine on Sample 2 under the SEM. 

After analyzing Sample 2, this is what was produced. The elements that were found in Sample 2 are identical to the ones found in Sample 1. This is good for us because this means that the data is consistent and there is no error in analyzing it. Of course Carbon and Oxygen were removed from the mapping. Even though the elements were consistent, the amount of them has clearly changed.

This is the elements with the image included so that you can see which part of the dust is composed of which element.

Just to make sure, we always examine the spectrum to check and make sure that each element is actually there, regardless of whether or not it was also found in the previous sample.

This is the data that we received after quantifying our spectrum. As you can see the composition of the dust is fairly similar to Sample 1. As mentioned above, Oxygen and Carbon have been removed.

Element	AN	series	[wt.%]	[norm. wt.%]	[norm. at.%]	Error in wt.% (1 Sigma)
Sodium	11	K-series	0.517404959	4.981322117	6.98322161	0.063236732
Magnesium	12	K-series	0.062626548	0.602937798	0.799507808	0.030033728
Aluminium	13	K-series	2.130154776	20.50808929	24.49651424	0.133178361
Silicon	14	K-series	1.443314914	13.89553072	15.94552428	0.090874711
Sulfur	16	K-series	1.187609971	11.43372848	11.49182254	0.070279841
Chlorine	17	K-series	1.960704124	18.87670121	17.16021048	0.09392205
Potassium	19	K-series	0.642771159	6.188286632	5.101035797	0.046257543
Calcium	20	K-series	1.911645311	18.40438693	14.79998035	0.082858875
Titanium	22	K-series	0.296168543	2.85136601	1.919307901	0.035047571
Iron	26	K-series	0.234499938	2.257650811	1.302874988	0.033009373
		Sum:	10.38690024	100	100

An issue that occurred while attempting to use the XRF on the dust is that the layer was too thin to get accurate data from it. This was the first place that there was an abundance of dust that a clump of it was collected.  Unfortunately the abundance of dust turned out to be useless.


Tristen Protzmann Prepping to place the Carbon tape onto the plate so that it can be examined under the SEM.