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 too thin for an X ray measurement ..read more

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

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 reaction was performed in an oxygen saturated atmosphere to know that a side product that formed during the transformation is a result of an oxidation or something else is happening ..read more

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 is visible from the color change of the reaction. Tin(II) iodide is a bight orange salt that is not really soluble in water in the presence of ammonium ions.  The Barbier reaction is an organometallic reaction between an alkyl halide (chloride, bromide, iodide), a carbonyl group and a metal. The reaction can be performed using magnesium, aluminium, zinc, indium, tin, samarium, barium or their salts ..read more

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 over pressure of nitrogen gas to keep the reaction oxygen free. From the other side a quite old, but still perfectly working syringe pump is used to add a reagent to the reaction with a really low speed though a rubber septa. This technique is frequently used when low concentration matters and it is critical to keep at least one of reactants on a low but constant concentration ..read more

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 different techniques. From standard round flasks, to pressure tubes a lot chemistry is happening over there ..read more

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 the recrystallization of various products. It is a safe and easy method for heating a flask ..read more

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 anyone is able to decide whether or not it has been successful ..read more

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 molten silver). After all have melted we just dropped it in a bucket of water and took out this shiny lump of this beautiful metal ..read more

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 used as a reductant in the synthesis of organic, organometallic, and inorganic chemistry. The alkali metal naphthalenides are prepared by stirring the metal with naphthalene in an ethereal solvent, usually as tetrahydrofuran or dimethoxyethane. The resulting salt is dark green as seen on the bottom of the first picture and on the above seen gif ..read more