Due to the Fourth of July, my days in the lab were cut one day short this week; however, it was by far the most valuable week. Throughout week 4 of my internship at Engle Lab, and much like this weekend’s holiday, I’ve been able to become much more independent. As Johnny got back this week from being sick, he’s been able to tell me to do this, that, and whatever and not watch while I do so.
On Tuesday, I spent the first half of the day with Skylar. I prepared three NMR samples of reactions we had run and purified the previous week. We then put them in the Spectrometer (the NMR machine), and waited for the results to come back in. While we waited, Skylar taught me how to read an NMR spectrum (pictured below). These spectrums show the amount of hydrogen/protons a molecule has, as well as showing specifics of them. It’s very hard to understand, and I was only able to understand it on a basic level after our hour-long mini lesson. Following this, Johnny returned to the lab, and after some settling in, we TLC’d the reactions that he had left running before he got sick to make sure that they didn’t decompose or react in an unexpected way.
Wednesday started much like Tuesday, as I prepared three more samples to be NMR’d. Johnny and I then put them on the spectrometer and they all showed us the molecules that we wanted. We then tag teamed, setting up four reactions. We each had a list of materials we had to weigh out as to split the workload. Two of the reactions were endothermic so we put them in an oil bath and two were either exothermic or endothermic so we just set them on top of a stir plate with the stir rod in them. We then waited a while and Johnny asked me to TLC the two reactions not in the oil bath. The TLC showed they were incomplete, so we called it a day and left them running overnight.
Thursday was filled mostly with running work ups on the reactions we had set up the previous day. This just means that we add either water or acid to the reactions to separate the organic substance that we want from impurities that we don’t. After this we had a group meeting. Usually group meetings are on Friday, but Keary was gone Friday so we just pushed it up one day. There were two presentations and then Johnny’s group questions. After the meeting I rotovapped the solutions that I did the work ups on before and then we called it a day.
All of Friday was spent using the biotage to further purify the substances that we had. This was a very lengthy process of creating cartridges of sand, silica, and the substance to then load into the machine and leave running, and then TLC the vials of product that it produces to see where the product is and if there are any impurities, to then finally rotvap the solvent off and get the final product. This lasted all day as we had the four substances to purify.
Other than the lab, on the fourth I went to downtown San Diego and was able to see the USS Midway from the outside, as well as the long walk of street vendors. I also checked out a couple beaches over the course of the day. On Saturday Karis, Olivia, and I went to Birch Aquarium and then to beach nearby. This Sunday I’ve just relaxed and cleaned up my room.
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