last updated Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Problems Set #6

General announcements

1. Waste management and lab safety

a. The  instructor noticed that several students poured acetone down the sink, which is entirely unacceptable according to California Law. If the authorities notice this, we will get fined $$$$$$, which ultimately will come out of your tuition.

b. Gloves and paper towel below in the regular trash and not into the box where glass waste is collected. Students throw the hot glass waste (from pulling capillaries in there and the paper might catch fire!). On the same token, glass waste and syringe needles belong into the blue-white box or the sharps container, and not into the regular trash.

c. You are not allowed to wear gloves outside the lab. This applies in particular to the office suite in which the instructor resides since this poses a significant health risk for everybody in the suite. Another bad habit is to bring solutions and chemicals to the instructor's office, which is a no-no as well.

2. Quiz 3

The next quiz will be administered on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 12 pm covering the epoxidation (experimental and theory ). Please make sure that you show up on time, which means at 11:55 am. Otherwise you will not be allowed to take the quiz.

3. Lecture April 20, 2010

After the quiz there will be a Chemdraw training in the SLC (YH 4335, YH 4336, YH 4341).

4. Formal report

a. Make sure that you make progress on your formal report as well in terms of literature research and writing the parts that you completed already in the lab. The draft version of paper is due on April 23, 2010 at 4:30 pm. The draft version is worth 15 points, the final paper 45 points. For more information what the draft is supposed to contain see here. Late submission will receive less credit. The more of your work you submit here, the more feedback you will get, which will beneficial for the final version. We will try to return the reports by Monday.

b. The draft has to be submitted in a folder. Copies of all spectra have to be included into the draft.

5. Data sharing

It also came to the attention of the instructor that some students are sharing data. To make it very clear, this is not allowed and will be regarded as cheating independent from what the TA told the students. This also means that the spectra have to be properly labeled i.e. the title and name of the student have to be printed on the printout and not be handwritten.

6. Experimental

a. Ethyl acetate is used as part of the solvent mixture for eluting the epoxide.
b. The solvent level in the NMR tube has to be as accurately as possible 5 cm. The solvent here is CDCl₃, which should only be handled in the hood!
c. The NMR tube has to be properly labeled (unknown, student name, section, Chem 30CL) and also be signed in.

d. The GC sample has to be signed in as well (student name, unknown, etc). Samples that are not properly label or signed in will not be run. The solvent here is hexane or petroleum ether and not CDCl₃! The label of the GC vial has to have the unknown on it as well!

ATTN: answers to the below questions are due at the start of your lab period of Meeting 6 (4/15 or 4/16); these answers should be part of your pre-lab write-up.

1. Flash chromatography