Final Project - Icy Haute#

Video#

Icy Haute from Stephanie Flores Zopf on Vimeo.

Presentation#

Overview of work to get to this point#

There was a lot of research to get to this state, and so I broke down my research by the following project phases:

Kit #1 - Growing SAT on textile#

Procedure#

  1. Pre-treat textile for crystal growth
    1. Fill a heat-safe container with SAT to a level where you can completely submerge the textiles you're pre-treating
    2. Place container on hot plate at medium-high setting, and cover with plastic wrap
    3. Watch salts melt. Add a few drops of water to keep it in liquid solution (the top will tend to solidify, it's important to try keeping the contents in liquid form)
    4. Once melted salts come to a roaring boil, completely submerge textile into bath and let it boil for 8 mins
  2. Once textile is pre-treated, rinse off any excess surface crystals in a room temperature bath of water
  3. Grow SAT crystals on textile
    1. Prepare a 2:1 SAT:water bath by weight - dissolve crystals in distilled water
    2. Let solution cool to < 58 C (for this work, I used the solution at 35 C)
    3. Dip textile SAT:water solution
    4. Watch crystal growth - note, experiments were done in open air solution. The rapid cooling of the salt triggered crystallization quicker. If in closed solution, crystal growth may be bigger, but will also take longer

Materials#

For using already synthesized salt acetate trihydrate crystals*:

Qty Description Price ($ USD) Notes
1 Sodium Acetate Trihydrate, 500g 28.77 Order many
1 Distilled water, 1 gal 1.00 Obtain from local store, can also use tap water, but may get varying results
1 Conductive jersey knit 14.95 Sample of textile that worked in this research. You can also try your own textile

If you cannot buy sodium acetate trihydrate in your country, you can make the salts according to this recipe.

Equipment and tools#

Qty Description Price ($ USD) Notes
2 Electric hot plate 20.00 Any hot plate will do, the more you have, the more efficient you can be with making the salts
1 Mass balance 11.85 Any food scale will do, really
1 Wide glass containers with lids 39.99 You can use any heat safe container, just make sure it’s smooth and you’re able to rid of any impurities that can exist on surface
1 Transfer pipettes 7.00 For controlling water addition to melted crystal bath
1 Plastic wrap 10.44 Any brand will do, just make sure it creates a seal with the containers you use

Kit #2 - Molding crystals on textile#

  1. Pre-treat textile per Kit #1 instructions
  2. Secure textile to lasercut textile holder
  3. Pipette 2:1 SAT:water solution in volume created by textile
  4. Let dry in the mold

Overall findings and conclusions#

This week, I worked on summing up my findings from my research with sodium acetate trihydrate (SAT) salts. Recall that the original goal of this project was to be able to control SAT reliably so that it could be incorporated in an electronic circuit. I believe with thoughtful design and a little more time and collaboration (;)) it could be achieved. However, my research with the material has led to the following conclusions, summarized in each subsection below: