Chemistry Lab Work

The three of us (Fangzhou, Teow Kwang aka TK, Tao Tao) had the chance to do some experiments in the chemistry lab during the past two days. We were led by some post-graduate students from the School of Chemistry. Basically we have learnt some basics about organic synthesis, how it works and what it can apply to. The three of us are not doing exactly the same thing because we are led by different students, who have different research fields. For me, my mentor has taught me about the Suzuki reaction, which is an organic reaction of a boronic acid with a halide catalysed by a palladium complex. The experiment I'm currently working on was the reaction she did last year. The product is supposed to be a biologically active drug which can be used to treat cancer.

Before we were allowed to enter the laboratory, we were given a booklet on safety instructions and told to read it thoroughly. Some examples of safety precautions are: wear goggles at all times when you are inside the lab; gloves worn in the lab cannot be worn outside the lab; you must do a risk assessment before every experiment that you do, etc. Although this sounds like common sense, sometimes people do forget about them. This is especially true for the rule on the gloves, which I accidentally broke today...

Some new instruments and skills that we have come across with are TLC (thin layer chromatography), rotavapor (rotary evaporation) and NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance). During these two days, I have learnt that organic chemistry is not as easy as it seems to be. It is certainly not pure memorising work, as someone has put it. It takes time and hard work to figure out the reaction mechanisms and to really synthesise the product. I really look forward to trying out more instruments and doing more complex reactions.