Week 6: Fast flying and fairly fruitful

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?

My fears for the dismal week that was most likely in store for me were put off to the side, though, because the interns went on a trip to the Bonneville Dam. Before we left, I did get to sample my propene batch in order to look at how much propene escapes overnight. The trip was fun, and we learned some interesting facts, as well as visited the fish hatchery, and climbed to the top of Multnomah Falls (a true Oregon experience, one that I have not done even though I have lived here most of my life).

On Wednesday I sampled the propene batch again, as well as throughout the remainder of the day. Surprisingly, I found that the propene concentrations were not decreasing with time as they were last week. From these results I think that the most likely culprit of the disappearing propene was the low air tank, live and learn...With these results I decided that it was safe to set up another allyl chloride experiment for Thursday.

On Thursday, I had a very hectic day, but all in all more fulfilling than I've had in a few weeks. In the ally chloride experiment I had to measure ally chloride disappearance in hexane injections, as well as propene appearance in headspace injections at least 5 or 6 times within half an hour to gain a full understanding of the reaction. I also performed a propene calibration curve in order to plot the propene appearance data.

And to finish off the week, the interns went on a trip to the Portland OHSU campus to gain a better understanding of what graduate school is like. And even though the trip did get me thinking a little more about graduate school, I am not any nearer to making that decision.