Thursday, November 06, 2008

Lab Plans Go Awry

So my advanced inorganic chemistry class is finally able to do experiments in our new lab. I have all these great cobalt coordination complexes synthesis labs plans. Very fun stuff. Colorful crystals. Lots of chemicals. And we're going to connect it all to symmetry at the end! (See prior post for a symmetry entry : )
But we haven't had much luck so far. For the first experiment, sulfuric acid got added instead of hydrochloric acid. And let that be a lesson for all of you who aspire to be chemists: the acid type does make a difference.
The next experiment has had some problems, but we are slowly maybe figuring out what to do.
One group did make some lovely emerald green crystals.
We spent Wednesday in lab "housekeeping" - trying to "fix" all our reactions that went awry. I felt like I was back in grad school. You can plan, but science doesn't always do what you think it should. Part of the fun is trying to figure out why and how to fix it...or finding a use for what you did make.
I told my students that I'm training them for grad school. Haha.

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