Douglas Meisenheimer's blog

My last week at CMOP was very quiet, since only four interns were left, but it was also very busy. Most of my week was spent on wrapping up my project so that my mentors could use and understand what I have accomplished over the summer. I organized all of my experiment files so that they could be acessed quickly and so that they could be more intuitive. I also worked on finishing up my final paper. A long and tortuous ordeal, but one that will be fruitful in the end.

Wow, only 1 week left of my internship...it feels like I only started last week.

This week was nothing exciting, but I did finish up most of the experiments I needed to do this summer, in order to write my final presentation for next week. 

This week was mainly about getting back on track with experiments. On monday I set up a 1,3 DCP batch with Zn64 to start testing both 1,3 DCP degredation on the liquid-phase GC, as well as product production in the headspace GC. On Tuesday, after the 1 day equilibriation time for the Zn64, I spiked in about 60 uM 1,3 DCP and tested on both GC's. Throughout the week I tested this batch but have yet to see any perceptible degredation. This was to be expected though, due to previous tests that have shown 1,3 DCP degredation by ZVZ to be much slower than Allyl Chloride and TCP.

Alliterations aside, the plan to start off my week was to look at the problem of propene disappearing when it wasn't supposed to...of course it did not go to plan (when does it ever in science?). The GC that I was planning to use for headspace analysis was not providing any peaks at all. After switching the air tank, as it was low, optimizing the flow rates of the gases, and countless hours of frustration, I finally got it back up and running...with 10 minutes to spare before quitting time. A good start to the week, don't you think?

Wow! I am already half done with my internship and it feels as if I have accomplished nothing, and yet so much at the same time.

These first few weeks have passed at a breakneck speed
performing a multitude, a sundry, of deeds.
Everything was dandy and going to plan,
But, alas, this week, my hopes hit the fan.

For I have come to a place which every scientist fears,
A place that can bring grown men to childish tears.

The Waiting Place...for an intern just waiting.

Waiting for new hexanes to come to make the GC go,
or a full canister of propene to come, or for TCP to go,

This past week was fairly uneventful as we had our fair share of setbacks early in the week. On Monday I set up batch reactors that would equilibriate over night and be used in the morning for new tests on 1,2-DCP, 1,3-DCP, or allyl chloride (it wasn't decided yet). Unfortunately, on Tuesday morning, after running some preliminary tests on where each reactant would peak on the GC, I found that the noise from the hexanes was in direct conflict with all three of the reactants we were going to look at and therefore the results would not be very accurate.

My second week here at CMOP was a little more exciting as I was in the lab almost the entire week. The main focus of the week was to look at the reaction kinetics of TCP with Zn64 to confirm that it is indeed a psuedo first order reaction. In order to do this, a massed amount of Zn64 was put into a serum vial with DI/DO water and allowed to equilibriate overnight. Therefore, I really didn't start experiments until Tuesday.

Bright eyed and eager to roll up my sleeves and get to work (or more accurately roll them down to cover as much skin as possible...safety first!), my first day at CMOP was exciting. I met the other interns, my mentors, had some safety training, and learned more about what I was going to do this summer.