9/24/2007

if i go too long without posting i feel lazy


...so here's a picture. Yes, it's a rather boring yellow-brown color, which means, in my lab, it must be a synthetic intermediate of some sort and not a final product. I've never seen anything that gave the little swirlies like you see here, though, which is why it deserved a picture. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly what this IS yet, but it should hopefully get shot into the GC/MS tomorrow.
It's always nice when something crystallizes on the rotavap--lets you know it's squeaky clean. I know someone here who was extremely lucky and got single x-rayable crystals from the rotavap. Wish I had awesome crystal karma like that.
Oh, and speaking of lazy, where are your entries for the lolnano contest??? We've received a few, and they're pretty funny, but they're terribly lonely and would like more friends. Yes. We require more submissions! Mwahaha!

10 comments:

Chemgeek said...

I love the swirls. Are they chiral swirls?

Ψ*Ψ said...

If anything in there is chiral, something went seriously wrong!
(i <3 flatland)

Anonymous said...

just because it looks flat on paper doesn't mean it aint chiral. you could have atropisomers :-P

Ψ*Ψ said...

Atropisomers? Maybe, maybe for a different project (hm, maybe i should take a second look at that crystal structure?)...but highly doubtful for this one. Nice straightforward linear acenes like the ones we make--not the supertwisty ones--are reliably flat. :)

Chemgeek said...

unrelated: I noticed the blog syntheticness is no more.

Anonymous said...

ah chemistry, crystals in a flask for me mean the exact opposite - my gooey oil/syrup/worse is contaminated with something undesired and solid. The number of non-reagent crystalline solids i've made for this project can be counted on one hand. But that yellow/black colour in there, thats a sign of victory ;-)

Anonymous said...

Sounds like my imidazole chemistry, kiwi. I know the reaction is "done" when it looks like black tar!

Anonymous said...

Charles J. Pedersen insubordinately played with a small tuft of white wiry crystals in a large reaction flask at duPont.

"The reactions were carried out as outlined and gave a product mixture in the form of an unattractive goo." So far, so good. "Initial attempts at purification gave a small quantity (about 0.4 percent yield) of white crystals..." He should have been fired right there for wasting company resources. It was a failure of professional management. Nobody plays with chemical waste - crystals! fer Christs's sake - when they are being paid to be productive.

(Quotes excerpted from Pedersen's Nobel Prize/Chemistry address.)

Anonymous said...

i feel good that i knew who that was w/o looking it up :)

since he did the work on company time, did DuPont get the money from his cut of the Nobel?

Doctor 13enster said...

Submitted another lolnano entry. I still think nanosatan is the best though!

-13enster