Week 2: All about TCP

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. My frontline mentor, Ali, has in the past allowed the Zn64 to equilibriate around 24 hours, but since I made the solution Monday afternoon it only had about 18 hours to equilibriate. This proved problematic as Tuesday drew on, because after I spiked the vial with TCP no reaction was observed when I would sample the solution on the GC. Finally, right before I was to leave for the day, a reaction took place right around 24 hours after the Zn solution was made.

Wednesday was much more successful, because I made the same solution that was tested on Tuesday, but with an equilibrium time closer to 24 hours. Testing the spiked solution for TCP in the GC, the data was plotted on a log scale axis and fitted with an exponential funtion in the graphing software IGOR, where a psuedo first order kinetic reaction was observed for two replicates. A control was also tested.

On Thursday and Friday I tested to see how the rate of the reaction would change with different masses of Zn64. Usually a mass of 15g was used, but on Thursday I tested with 20g and Friday with 10g. Thursday's resulted turned out as expected with an increased rate, but Friday's showed no reaction. The reactor vial was then allowed to react over the weekend and will be tested on Monday to find out if a reaction will actually occur.

The objective for next week will be to look at the reaction rates of the likely products of TCP, most probably 1,2-dichloropropane and/or 1,3-dichloropropane.