02/26/14-03/05/14

On this day at Ecovative, I learned how to work the ECA machine. (Electro Chemical Activation technology). Using this machine, I prepared for and carried out chemical treatments for floral foams, a product that is currently in the workings at Ecovative. Put more simply, Electro Chemical Activation is used to make ECA solutions by "mixing readily available food grade salt with water thereafter passing the brine solution through patented reactors...once inside the reactor, the brine is activated by way on an electrical charge and two distinct solutions are produced."

Put in chemical terms:

H20 + NaCl <=> NaOH + HClO
(H+ + OH- + Na+ + Cl- <=> Na+ + OH- + H+ + ClO-)

This machine was used because normally mycelium produces Acly groups that are hydrophobic. However, because we were out to create floral foams (a spongy foam that soaks up water and acts both as a preservative to lengthen flower life and a support to hold them in place), we had to make the very groups hydrophilic. Thus, by treating it with ECA solutions, aka, by using a strong base to deacylate the group, we were, put in layman's terms, "chopping off" the hydrophobic part.

To the left is a diagram of an Acly group. R simply stands for any chemical chain. The hydrophobic part of acyl groups is the double bond between the carbon and the oxygen molecule. Consequently, by using the ECA machine, I deacylated the chain and "chopped" that specific part out to make the product hydrophobic.

The solution I am pouring out here is the solution made from the ECA machine that will be inserted and sealed with the raw floral foams (in bags) as shown in the bottom picture. This is so that the deacylate reaction takes place, making the floral foam products hydrophobic rather than hydrophilic. 

a more close up shot of the required amount of solution for each bag (which contained 4  raw floral foams products)

After inserting the solution into each of the bags, the next and final step was to seal the bags using the Vacmaster as shown above.