Pictures from an organic chemistry laboratory

A product crystallized in these nice needles in s small vial.  We planned to obtain an X ray diffraction to know an exact structure of this special molecule, unfortunately these needles are to...

https://labphoto.tumblr.com/post/615129842298568704

Just a snapshot from the fume hood as it looks like during a normal day. 

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Preparation of an oxygen saturated solution in a graduated cylinder.  It is often painful to know the reason of side reactions or even get clues about how a reaction proceeds. In this case the...

https://labphoto.tumblr.com/post/614948514913533952

Barbier-type allylation of aldehydes with allylic bromide and tin(II) chloride in presence of potassium iodide and ammonium chloride in water.  During the reaction tin(II) iodide forms what i...

https://labphoto.tumblr.com/post/614858050091810816

Performing a photochemical transformation using white light and the slow addition of a photocatalyst.  On left there is a reaction that is stirred on a magnetic stirrer and kept under a slight...

https://labphoto.tumblr.com/post/614767459216637952

When we ran out of space and magnetic stirrers in the fume hood quite crowded oil baths are in operation.  In this case, total 6 reaction is performed on quite wide variety of scales and using...

https://labphoto.tumblr.com/post/614676736182992897

Recrystallizing a raw product using an infra lamp as a heat source.  It looks great and it also works well. Instead of a heat gun or an oil bath, we often use infra lamps as heat source during...

https://labphoto.tumblr.com/post/614586286286782464

The lab ran out of balloons that we often use to keep reactions under nitrogen atmosphere and a colleague had a a desperate attempt to use a nitrile glove instead of a balloon.  I think that ...

https://labphoto.tumblr.com/post/614495567923609600

Melting some silver.  It was melted in a ceramic crucible with an oxygene/methane torch, under circa 1h. The silver was liquified under a layer of borax (it prevents the oxidation of the molte...

https://labphoto.tumblr.com/post/614405044024049664

Reduction using some freshly prepared sodium naphthalenide. It is also known as sodium naphthalide, is an organic salt with the chemical formula Na+C10H8−. In the research laboratory, it is u...

https://labphoto.tumblr.com/post/614314336110936064

Filtration of a reaction mixture though a pad of silica gel.  It is a well working technique for the purification of different reaction mixtures. If a highly polar, non elutable side product i...

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A freshly arrived can of cyanogen bromide. Cyanogen bromide is the inorganic compound with the formula BrCN. It is a colorless solid that is widely used in organic chemistry.  Some interesti...

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Working with tert-butyllithium.  This one is a quite useful and well known chemical. It spontaneously ignites on air. tert-Butyllithium is a chemical compound with the formula (CH3)3CLi. As a...

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Screening different reaction conditions using a catalystin a special reaction. Each vial contains a different amount/conentration of reactant or another solvent. Often to find the perfect condi...

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Distilling a reaction mixture using a short path distillation apparatus. The short path distillation apparatus is used when we have to distill heat sensitive compounds that may decompose under ...

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Just a deep red reaction mixture that slowly separates from the water phase in a separating funnel.  In this case a dichloromethane solution was washed with brine and due the similar density o...

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Making some fresh, absolute tetrahydrofuran (THF) with benzophenone and sodium. The diphenylketyl-sodium has this beautiful deep blue color what only appears if no water, oxygen, CO2 or anything...

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Pictures from an organic chemistry laboratory turned 8 today! During these years I have done more than a thousand chemical reactions, isolated several hundred compounds, and many of these were ...

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Dissolution of a Grubbs type olefin metathesis catalyst in dichloromethane.  Olefin metathesis reaction is a “modern” transformation used in organic chemistry. This reaction allows the e...

https://labphoto.tumblr.com/post/181985410856

A freshly crystallized quinone.  Quinones are a class of organic compounds that are formally “derived from aromatic compounds by conversion of an even number of –CH= groups into –C(=O)�...

https://labphoto.tumblr.com/post/181958088656