For some students, research is merely ticking another box for med school or a resume builder, but not for sophomore Brianna Gauto-Kennedy, a Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChemBE) major, who is currently engaged in research in the Department of Materials Sciences and Engineering . In an interview with The News-Letter, she outlined her journey to her lab and described her current project.
Gauto-Kennedy felt compelled to explore research, since Hopkins is one of the top research institutions in America, and she wanted to exploit every facet of opportunity that the University offered, as well as gain unique hands-on experiences not offered in coursework.
“I don’t look at research as something that needs to go on my resume, and I have to do it because others are partaking in it, and I have to do better than them,“ she said. “Researching is nice because it’s so different from your classes and it's not for a grade so you're not super pressured. I feel like because [of classes], you're never really doing something hands-on unless you're in like intro chem lab and those are kind of boring-ish labs.”
She also shared that she ended up at her lab in an unlikely fashion. Freshman are required to take a Freshman Year Seminar (FYS), which is a class specifically designed to build community between freshmen. Gauto-Kennedy’s first-year seminar was taught by Michael Falk, Vice Dean of Undergraduate Education of the Whiting School of Engineering.
In a meeting with Falk, Gauto-Kennedy mentioned she had participated in research over the summer in high school and wanted to explore both aspects (chemistry and biology) of her ChemBE major. Coincidentally, after she talked with Falk about her interests, Falk met with Regina García-Méndez, an Assistant Professor at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
A business card and cold email later, Gauto-Kennedy became an undergraduate researcher in the García-Méndez laboratory in January of last year. In the lab, she conducts research with solid-state electrolyte batteries and lithium-ion batteries and as the youngest person in the lab, is still learning and discovering more about solid state batteries.
The research team that Gauto-Kennedy works with is smaller than average, with 2 Ph.D. students, 1 post-doctoral researcher, 1 Master’s student, and just 3 undergraduate students. She described that she enjoyed the close-knit nature of the team and finds value in being able to know each member of the team. The small-size also enables García-Méndez to get to know and meet with each member individually.
Currently, Gauto-Kennedy is working with a PhD student to target the most optimal conditions to make a substance called Argyrodite, which makes up the electrolyte part of the battery and is composed of Li₂S, LiCl, and P₂S. She described that Arygrodite has the potential to act as more environmental-friendly and efficient replacement for lithium batteries, and can hopefully be produced on a large scale in the near future.
García-Méndez’s research team is currently synthesizing a batch of different Arygrodite powders, and then analyzing the sample using X-ray diffraction analysis and a software called HighScore. The lab use a mortar and pestle to mix all the powders together initially, and then puts the samples in a jar to be ball-milled, which moves the powder in a planetary motion for around 25 hours or more to mix all the precursor powders together.
Currently, there is a struggle to make the Argyrodite pure, as testing yields varying results. The goal is to have a level of purity above 90%, though 100% is not possible, so the goal is somewhere around 95%. The lab is currently yielding fluctuating numbers around 60-70%.
Gauto-Kennedy is currently experimenting with systematically varying the ratios of Li₂S, LiCl, and P₂S₅ to determine the optimal stoichiometry for achieving high-purity Argyrodite. Additionally, she is adjusting ball-milling times to ensure thorough mixing and reaction of precursors — right now, the time is 25 hours. There is a limit to how much the milling time can be reduced, because if it’s not mixed for enough time, the reactants won’t fully combine.
Gauto-Kennedy elaborated on her struggles with the Argyrodite production and shared that the software could be a leading issue for her research.
“It’s a bunch of trial and error with these different conditions to make my sample more pure. But I don't even know if the analysis of purity is correct,“ she said. “We're trying to do another type of analysis called a Rietveld Analysis. I still have to do more research about it, but it's supposed to be more narrowed down and specific for what it's looking for, and hopefully it's less arbitrary than HighScore for the analysis. So when you run the [HighScore] software and [Rietvield] and you get two different results, which one do you take? That's what I don't know.”
Walking through a day in her life, she shared that she is grateful for the opportunity the lab has brought her, and is currently utilizing the experience for course credit. She spends a varying amount of time in the laboratory per day but around 6 hours on average each week, and García-Méndez is open to Gauto-Kennedy going whenever she has the time whether between classes or after lunch just as long as she coordinates with her Principal Investigator, who shows her the ropes and monitors her progress.
“It's really flexible; I go to the lab on my own time,“ she stated. “And when I'm in the lab, which is in the basement of Maryland, I work with a PhD student, and he shows me everything —he shows me what I can do, if I should put powders together, if I should put something to run for analysis or if I should do an analysis.”
Every week, Gauto-Kennedy meets with García-Méndez and discusses her progress in the lab and any questions she has. In addition, the full team meets every week to talk about their progress, usually with everyone reading one paper and one person presenting it. At the end of the semester, Gauto-Kennedy will present a cumulative paper of her research to García-Méndez and her team during one of these meetings.
She shared her growth from starting off knowing nothing about solid-state electrolytes batteries, including Argyrodite, to being immersed in the lab and presenting her findings.
“It’s nice because I basically started out not knowing anything, and now I’ve learned so much. My PI shows me a lot and that's an experience I get outside of just doing classes,“ she said. “At the end of the month I'm going to put together a presentation to update the rest of the research team about what I've been doing in the lab [and] show all my graphs of the batches of our Argyrodite that I made that weren't pure versus what I tried doing to make it more pure. And hopefully by the end of the month, I'll get it, as pure as it can be.”
Lastly, Gauto-Kennedy emphasized that the value of working in the lab is rooted in the opportunity to learn.
“I still don’t know everything,“ she said. “In a research lab, especially now as a freshman or sophomore, it’s really all about getting skills and experience.”
