Lab work

Hello and Salam to everyone,

Currently i have been so busy with my lab work in chemistry field so I couldn't find the right time to update my blog after few months being left out without any new posts. Here are some stories that I would like to share with readers, my experience in a new environment, not being as a student: attending boring lectures everyday at 8am but committing myself to be part of an exciting lab community. Sounds boring? Well..you'll be the judge! Everyday I wake up early in the morning (being in the lab at 9am) hahaha..not too bad rite? then sometimes after i arrived, i had short discussions with my supervisor but lately, after being trained..i am proud to say that i am efficient enough to carry out my own chemical reactions without any discussions. hehehe..(^^)

This is the time in which i feel so free..no longer needed to be told to do this and that..i created my own style and planned every single steps at my best but! still based on the rxn scheme (or else..who knows i might accidentally create a big explosion in the bldg :( hehehe)

Day started with mixing up chemicals. ensured that the condition is in absence of oxygen (so i used argon balloon ). some ppl might think of using nitrogen instead of argon because it is cheaper but the fact is argon is denser than nitrogen which is much better to get a better yield for your reaction!

Then it continues by heating up + stirring. maybe it takes an hour..3 hours..perhaps overnight..hohoho..later i'll add some water and organic solvents eg: EtOAc (ethyl acetate) or hexane..depends hoho..to separate organic and inorganic layers..then I add some brine (called for saturated NaCl) to absorb water from the organic crude. and filtered with drying agent under vacuum. u can used Sodium Sulphate or Magnesium Sulphate. we have plenty and u choose! hehehe..

U probably wanna do TLC first to check if u make the product. if not..there's no use to go further...rite? then u can evaporate all solvents under reduced pressure. later, i'll do NMR..another way of characterizing the product that we are looking for. then if the NMR gives good results, i'll proceed to do column chromatography to purify the product. do evaporator again (a bit boring here sigh!) and NMR..so here is your product that u're looking for!. Sounds easy? hahaha..it takes me 3 days to do all these stuffs. and i'll be back home around 6pm everyday.

It looks like I have been writing some sort of "recipe". hahaha...but yeah..these are the main steps of what i have been doing so far..to produce molecules called dendrimers. i'll probably can share with u about my past experience of producing nano-molecules (about 14nm in diameter)! hahaha..that'll be another "boring" story i think? but actually it is so exciting!!

anyway, that's all for now. I am just recalling the steps for my next reaction tomorrow.
Have a nice day!
Zatil