{"id":69037,"date":"2005-09-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-09-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/coventry-students-research-aids-in-development-of-heat-sensitive-materials\/"},"modified":"2005-09-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-09-08T00:00:00","slug":"coventry-students-research-aids-in-development-of-heat-sensitive-materials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2005\/09\/coventry-students-research-aids-in-development-of-heat-sensitive-materials\/","title":{"rendered":"Coventry student\u2019s research aids in development of heat-sensitive materials"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I. — September 8, 2005 — Coventry resident Ashley Mills decided to major in chemistry at the 溏心vlog免费B站 partly because it\u2019s \u201ca field that is constantly changing.\u201d She\u2019s been conducting research on some of those changes for the last two years, helping 溏心vlog免费B站 researchers learn more about a polymer they developed that changes color at different temperatures and has applications in dozens of products.<\/p>\n


\n\tImagine a milk carton that changes color when the milk has been at room temperature for too long; or a cooking pot that changes color to indicate it\u2019s too hot to touch; or road signs that change color indicating icy conditions. A polymer that can potentially do all these things was developed by 溏心vlog免费B站 researcher Brett Lucht and his colleagues in 2002, and for the last two years Mills has been helping the professors learn more about it.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cBasically, we\u2019re trying to determine its different properties,\u201d said the 20-year-old junior. \u201cBy altering the polymer, we\u2019re trying to discern why it changes color, how to make it change at certain temperatures, and how to get it to change to particular colors.\u201d <\/p>\n


\n\tSo far, the polymer changes from red to yellow between 50 and 100 degrees centigrade. \u201cBy changing the molecular structure of the polymer, we\u2019re able to change its color and change the temperature at which the color change occurs,\u201d Mills said.<\/p>\n


\nIn a typical day in the lab, she makes a variety of samples of the polymer and uses reflection spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to test them.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cDifferent colors reflect light at different wave lengths, so reflection spectroscopy uses a light probe to measure the light reflected off the polymer to tell us exactly when the color change occurs,\u201d said Mills, a 2003 graduate of Coventry High School. \u201cThe DSC measures the amount of heat it takes to change the polymer color.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nMills will continue her research on the heat-sensitive polymer for the coming school year. After graduation in 2007, she plans to pursue a graduate degree.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cHopefully I\u2019ll get my doctorate and get into forensic science or some other lab work. And maybe eventually I\u2019ll teach chemistry, too,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n


\n溏心vlog免费B站 News Bureau photo by Michael Salerno Photography<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. — September 8, 2005 — Coventry resident Ashley Mills decided to major in chemistry at the 溏心vlog免费B站 partly because it\u2019s \u201ca field that is constantly changing.\u201d She\u2019s been conducting research on some of those changes for the last two years, helping 溏心vlog免费B站 researchers learn more about a polymer they developed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69039,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}