Two Long

Well I realized that it has been almost half a month since I last posted. Since my last post I have been working hard in the lab. Most days I get out at about 6:30 but the past two days I have gotten out at 8 and 7pm. It has definitely been a great experience getting to see what the daily life of a grad student is like. It has also been my first full time "job" which has been something that I have been needing to get for a while. It has shown me that while it is a lot of work being a chemist, I would rather be doing something that I enjoy and that will fill the time in a fulfilling way.

Fire Alarms

Well today at the lab the fire alarm went off twice. The first time was a few minutes after I had gotten there in the morning and so it wasn't to inconvenient, although we did had to stay outside for a half hour in the muggy sun. The second alarm came later in the day and only lasted about 10 seconds. I don't believe there was a fire the first time, someone said that the dust can cause them to go off. However, I did use with butyl lithium in the lab today for my reaction, and if it comes in contact with the air it will immediately catch on fire. We had to use a needle to draw it out of its container while having the container under an atmosphere of argon gas. Since the argon gas is denser than air it keeps the air from entering the needle so that we could transfer it to the reaction vessel.

Two Tries

So this post is dedicated to chemistry and the lab. I am almost done with my first week of being in the lab at KU and it has been quite an experience. I am learning so much everyday and I am starting to become familiar with the techniques. Today my advisor let me do things on my own and let me loose since I had already done everything once. While it was a little tough it was definitely helpful trying to do it on my own without help.

1. Second Reaction: After taking an NMR of my first reaction which we think got lost in the solvent trap over night we found out that it was pretty much a failure. We compared it with the spectrum that my grad student advisor had and they were not the same. So I then started the reaction again but this time with a different solvent. The TLC plates that are used to see how a reaction is progressing were much better today and we saw spots that we were expecting to see but didn't see in the first reaction. I haven't finished purifying it to see if it is the right product, but as of now I am feeling positive about how this reaction has been going.

2. Second Column: We use column chromatography to purify products from starting material and side reactions after we run a reaction. My first column was pretty ugly and I was spilling all over. Since one of our starting products was benzyl bromide I was crying and my eyes were burning for about an hour every time I spilled. Today I packed the column very nicely and I managed to limit the amount spilled during the time when the benzyl bromide was to a few drops so I didn't have any tears or burning sensations. I did get caught doing something else while I was trying to still run the column and I looked over to see the test tube overflowing onto the bench. Unfortunately it was during the time when the pure final product was coming out and so we lost a little bit of our final product. Luckily my advisor just chuckled and told me that it is typical to spill the column when the product is coming out.

Sometimes I like to think that Jesus was a chemists, especially since both with chemistry and forgiveness involve a lot of second, and third, and forth chances...

Bittersweet

1. Bitter: After passing the 30,000 photo mark my trustworthy Canon camera has finally seen the last of its days. I am going to try and see if replacing a tiny battery in it will revive its life, but I feel that it will be in vain. I am thinking about finally getting the nice camera, not that my other one wasn't nice, that I have been putting off for a while. So if you have any suggestions please let me know. I will most likely stick with Canon since I have been more than pleased with their products.

2. Sweet: Well it was my first day in lab and I have to say it went quite well. I finished my first reaction and learned quite a few helpful tips along the way. My graduate advisor is very helpful, as well as being quite a nice guy. I am soaking up information and I am excited to see what the rest of the summer holds.