Exhaustive extraction in the lab. Water and sodium hydrogen carbonate into DCM (dichloromethane).
Almost looks like a tequila sunrise.
Oily solid from a suzuki-coupling reaction. Spun fast on a rotatory evapourator. The thick oil turns almost solid under vacuum.
Too many lab coats.
While the Graphic Designers are away, the Mad Scientist shall play.
Living with designers makes my life interesting. But sometimes I get time alone in the studio on a rainy sunday to plaster the room and boards with science.
The board shows calculations and formulas for calculating the moment of inertia.
*Having a board to write on also makes me feel a little like Sheldon Cooper.
Amide crystals. Aminobenzene with acetic anhydride to form the amide. Left overnight after heating to crystallise.
A chemist’s best friend.
Just using bromine (not bromine water though) myself in the lab. Brominations are a risky business.
(Source: flickr.com, via holymoleculesbatman)
Teeny tiny glassware, and my chem mascot. I know, I know. He isn’t wearing a lab-coat……yet….
This is an example of Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC). As an analytical chromatography technique, this has a mobile and stationary phase. In this case the stationary phase or plates are silica (SiO2) on aluminum foil and the mobile phase (solvent) varies, dependant on the mixture being separated. This is due to experimentation as the compound will be put through a column (same mobile and stationary phase used for TLC) to purify and separate the different “spots” indefinitely. This requires the correct solvent to separate them efficiently.
The mobile phase is drawn up the plate via capillary action. Generally heavier molecules move slower, and shorter distances, but this can completely change when taking into account the polarity of the molecule in comparison to the solvent used.
The plates show different stages of the reaction while using different solvents to separate them. Obviously the aim is to use up all the starting material.
M - mixture
R - reaction
SM - Starting material
This is a crystal structure for those who can’t identify.
The orange central atoms are copper metal ions, surrounded by complex organic ligands made up of pyridine and thiodiazole units together as a strand. The nitrogen and sulphur can bond ligand to metal by donating or accepting electrons. The organic units and the central metal ions form a double helicate crystal.
Other ions are solution it is dissolved in and ions from the original metal complex. In this case perchlorate ions (ClO4-).
The picture is plotted, originally from an X-rayed image of the crystal structure.
This is one of the structures I made as a placement student assisting Professor Craig Rice.
