Marx, Michelle2016-03-092016-03-092007http://hdl.handle.net/11603/2500From the Faculty Nominator: Michelle Marx originally wrote this article for submission to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR-2007) publication. It was based on her 10-weeks full time Summer Research in Experimental Condensed Matter Physics program at Goucher. I was her supervising faculty and we worked in my research laboratory during the summer 2006. Michelle’s good organizational and problem solving skills made her a good experimental researcher. She kept accurate notes of the outcomes and offered good analysis for the follow up steps. She successfully presented her research results twice on Goucher campus and at the NCUR conference in the Dominican University, California, April 12-14, 2007. Her paper has been accepted for publication in NCUR conference proceeding with minor corrections. I am very happy that her work has also been accepted in the Verge publications and I wish her more scholarly achievements in her future.Previous studies have shown that the ball milling technique, which mechanically heats and releases energy, often causes a displacement reaction between various metals and metal oxides. Sometimes ball milling causes a selfpropagating heat synthesis reaction (SHS) to occur. This study was undertaken to see whether the ball milling technique could provide a method to extract pure silicon from silicon oxide. Since silicon oxide and aluminum are readily available materials, the ball milling process would be an easy and cost-efficient way to produce silicon. The parameters tested in this study included varying the amount of aluminum, total powder mass, number of balls (kinetic energy), and milling atmosphere. Parameters also tested were additions of acetone and alcohol. X-ray diffraction was used to determine what elements and compounds were present before and after ignition. This study discovered that when silicon oxide and aluminum are milled SHS does not occur despite the reaction being highly exothermic. It does not appear possible to slow down the localized reactions to the point where SHS can occur.8 p.en-USCollection may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. To obtain information or permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Goucher Special Collections & Archives at 410-337-6347 or email archives@goucher.edu.Research -- Periodicals.Humanities -- Research -- Periodicals.Social sciences -- Research -- Periodicals.Text