Eighth Post

Today is slightly more difficult than yesterday. It’s all in a different way, see, because I’m still sitting around while my reaction runs itself.

No, today I have hit a couple of obstacles.

The first was easy enough, albeit frustrating. We thought we had an unopened bottle of butyllithium. We don’t. So I went downstairs and ordered a new (unopened) bottle of butyllithium. Luckily, I’m only going to have to wait probably two days for it (counting today, and possibly part of Thursday?).

Now I’ve been asked to find conditions to separate this photochemically oxidized product from the solvent, which is toluene. Well, okay. I can look those up. So far, I have a set of general conditions that give me guidelines, and a reference that I can’t get but that FX possibly has. So that’s marked off the list.

The last instruction I have is to locate platinum oxide. If I can’t locate it, we’ll have to order it. I’m not sure what we’re using it for. I know it’s used for hydrogenation; I’m just not sure what we’re hydrogenating. So I went down to Gitsov’s lab, only it’s locked and I don’t really want to bang on the door. Not right now. Maybe later, after FX and I reconvene.

But I really want to find some, see, because it’s platinum. Let me try to explain: for 250mg (that’s like a quarter of a paper clip), Aldrich charges $50.50. That’s some pricey stuff. So I’m really hoping I can find it, because in the meantime, I’m not really doing much. I crunched some numbers, I found some conditions… I have to ask FX what constitutes a needle valve… or I could google it. Hey, sometimes I have good ideas!

I googled it, and I’m still not sure where to find it in here. I can’t even remember if I’ve seen it before. Oh well… I guess I’ll just ask him when I see him again. Hopefully I see him again.

So I just went and banged on Gitsov’s lab door, only the student in there has got ear buds in, so she can’t hear me. Since I didn’t want to disturb the entire floor, I guess I can put off that particular adventure a few more minutes. I don’t really know where to check for platinum oxide.

Okay. I gained entrance to Gitsov’s lab, and there was no platinum oxide to be found. I should check Giner’s lab… ugh.

All right, definitely just went up to Giner’s lab, and there was no one there. I decided against just letting myself in, and now I’m back here, waiting the remaining 27 minutes for this reaction to end and then I can make up a sample and run it on the GC. Then I’ll have absolutely nothing to do, which will be… almost no different from right now, because right now I’m being faintly productive by running the reaction. Even though I’m not doing anything.

Okay so a lot has happened now, I guess. Timing between paragraph breaks varies greatly. My reaction has finished, I ran it on the GC, the results mean nothing to me, and whatever they mean to FX has not yet been imparted to me. I began distilling off the toluene under a vacuum. Oh, and I ran into Giner, who has platinum oxide and is loathe to part with it. FX said he’d take care of it. Hahahahahahaha.

So now I’m distilling, which is rather like running the photochemical reaction because I’m not actually doing anything, but it is slightly more hands-on in that I have a little needle valve that I’m supposed to open if I see any bumping. There has not been any bumping, but it is a quarter to four and I still have something like 750ml to distill down. So… who knows. But if I don’t finish today, it’s not a big deal I guess because I can just finish tomorrow. FX has to go to the vet anyway. With his dog, of course.

Oops. Well, I forgot to post this when I got home, but I still have half an hour of today left. I’m out, then. Gotta shower, let the dogs out, and scoop up eight hours of sleep before heading out again.