Date of Award

Spring 2010

Document Type

Restricted Thesis

Terms of Use

© 2010 Erik Smith. All rights reserved. Access to this work is restricted to users within the Swarthmore College network and may only be used for non-commercial, educational, and research purposes. Sharing with users outside of the Swarthmore College network is expressly prohibited. For all other uses, including reproduction and distribution, please contact the copyright holder.

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Physics & Astronomy Department

First Advisor

Peter J. Collings

Abstract

This paper is a summary of two different research projects that spanned the summer and fall of 2009: one project investigating the effects of sonication, pH, and magnetic field on suspensions of graphene oxide, and another project observing the pre-transitional dynamics in the chromonic liquid crystal called Bordeaux dye. Though the materials studied in each project were completely different, both were analyzed using static and dynamic light scattering techniques. In this paper, we present the results of both experiments in conjunction with a shared theoretical section on light scattering.

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