This project was done by Group RadioActive from Al-Arqam Academy under the supervision from AL-Bairaq.

1. AL-Bairaq
I am Discovering Materials
Manipulation of light in the nanoworld.
Radioactive
Maryam Al-Bader Fatma Khashabi
Fatma Zayed

2. Outline
• Introduction
• Activity 1: Light and their spectrum.
• Activity 2: Observing diffraction.
• Activity 3: Observing interference.
• Activity 4: Observing iridescence.
• Design Project: fabricating photonic crystals
• Product Idea

3. Introduction
• The interaction of light with nanoscale
materials is the topic featured in this module.
There are many processes that result in the
production of light and colour. An analysis of
light using a spectroscope reveals information
regarding the nature of its source and the
objects that scatter it.

4. Activity 1: Light and their spectrum.
• Objective: To build a spectroscope and use it to examine several
different light sources.
We made a spectroscope and observed the spectrum of light:
We used two bulbs:
1. Compact Fluorescent bulb: 2. Incandescent bulb
Conclusion:
We concluded that
the light spectrum
produced by the
compact
fluorescent bulb is
discrete, whereas
the spectrum
produced by the
incandescent bulb is
continuous.

5. Activity 2: Observing diffraction.
• Objective: To explore one of the properties of all waves
(waters waves and light waves), diffraction.
We used water to represent water waves as light waves:
Conclusion:
When there was only one small gap the waves were clear, more intense
and small, whereas when the gap was bigger the waves were less intense
and big. When we had two gaps, two waves were visible and they joined
together to show interference.

6. Activity 3: Observing interference.
• Objective: We will have the chance to explore another wave
property, interference, referring to what happens when two
or more waves occupy the same region of space at that same
time.
-We saw an interference in a transparent film.
-We attached a string to a motor and saw how waves are created with
different wavelength, size, separation and so on.
Conclusion:
We concluded the longer the wavelength of light used, the further apart the
lines will be.

7. Activity 4: Observing iridescence.
• Objective: To have the chance to examine several different
occurrence of this ‘structural colour.’
We made three experiments to observe how colours change.
1- Thin film iridescence:
2- Peacock feather:
Conclusion:
We concluded that
the colour changes
depending on the
angle of light and the
structural differences

8. Design project: Fabricating photonic
crystals.
• Objective: To model, fabricate and test synthetic opals using
polystyrene spheres.
We created two photonic crystals in the form of synthetic opals using the
Nanoflect evaporation process.
Conclusion:
We concluded that
the colour changes
according to the
molecules structure
of the solutions.

9. Final Project:
Products ideas.
Final Project/ product:
1. Street signs that are in remote areas are written in
polystyrene so that it reflects the car’s light, lighten up and
attract the driver’s attention to prevent car accidents.
2. Fire execution arrows that leads to the exits are made up of
a substance that reflects light and lighten in the dark so that
people know their way to the exits quickly.
3. Paint the house parking lines using polystyrene so that it
differentiate between the free parking, and the private
parking of our houses; it keeps the rights of the owner of the
land.

10. Final Project:
Street signs painted with photonic gel.
• Nowadays, we lost lots of youngsters in car accidents in remote areas,
and we don’t want to lose more because youngsters are important, and
we do need them, their lives are important to us and we definitely don’t
want to lose anyone. Car accidents happens mostly in remote areas
because there isn't any source of light except the car’s light, and street
signs that warn them about bumpy, dangerous streets, or warn them
about excavation aren’t clear and would not attract the driver’s
attention. So our project would make the signs in remote areas clearer
and would hopefully attract the driver’s attention.
• Yes, there are street signs in remote areas for example Alshamal street,
however the signs aren’t clear, so that’s why most of the car accidents
happen there. Inshallah we will reduce the number of car accidents.
• Our aim is to save youngster’s lives because they’re important to us, and
we don’t want to lose them or lose anyone from our family/friends, we
aim to reduce the number of car accidents and hope that we wont lose
anyone anymore.

11. Street signs painted with photonic gel
Hypothesis:
• The number of youngsters death because of car accidents will
hopefully reduce; if we painted the written instructions and
warnings on street signs and banners with photonic gel that is
made by a mixture of polystyrene and polymers. Specially the ones
in remote areas where it’s so dark and drivers can barely see any
signs or words. The words will illuminate once the car light hits the
signs and it will reflect the light to attract the driver's attention.
Therefor, drivers will notice the signs and follow the instructions
written on them, so this will prevent car accidents.
• Hopefully, electricity will also be saved since the words will light
up without the use of electricity.

12. Street signs painted with photonic gel
Methods and Materials
• We are going to use a product that has been created by material
scientists at Rice University and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. which is a mixture of polystyrene and polymers. The
product is called ‘photonic gel’. It is a liquid that illuminates once
the light hit it. We are going to write the instructions written on
the signs in the streets by this photonic gel.

13. why do we prefer this method?
It is true that we can see reflective tapes being used on street
signs and on worker’s clothes to also illuminate when it is
dark, but we prefer using the photonic gel because it is easier,
quicker and much clearer to write using liquid instead of
having to cut the tapes to form letters and words which will
be very time consuming.
We also prefer it because we wont need really large amount
of photonic gel like how we will need the tape so it will cost
us less money. And one of the material scientists said that it is
inexpensive and even if we had to cover a football field, it will
only cost 100 dollars.

14. Conclusions
(Overall of the whole module)
Benefits we gained from this participation are
a lot! We knew about the interaction of
light with nanoscale materials, and we
observed the different uses and
characteristics of light which was very
interesting. It was a really good experience

15. Acknowledgment
Many thanks to AL-Bairaq team from Center for Advanced
Materials (CAM), Qatar University for supporting us during our
journey with a AL-Bairaq.
Also, I would like to thank the sponsors UNESCO, Qatar National
Commission, Ras Gas, Maersk and Shell.
And thank our school for giving us this chance of participating in
Al-Bairaq