Recrystallisation

I finally got down to sitting down and reading through my first “go do this on your own and submit the report in 2 weeks” lab assignment. I saw stars the first time I read through it. I have never ever seen and/or heard the names of like 60% of the equipment listed/used in the experiment. No doubt I won’t know how to use them either. Things like Buchner Flasks, Buchner Funnels, Glass Drying Ovens and the list just goes on.

Now, things would be fairly easy if that was the only problem, cos I can pick up the use of apparatus pretty fast. The bigger problem comes when in the question, all they tell you is…”Use fluting for the filter.” and use this technique, use that technique…techniques which I have never heard of. Ok, I’ve probably done it, but I never knew the technique’s name. I’m gonna feel dumb asking Helen what the heck the names mean. Oh yea, Helen’s my lab partner from London, pretty nice and sweet girl. I think we won’t have any problems getting along.

And the whole experiment seemed so easy. Getting pure p-toluene-sulponamide crystals from a mixture of charcoal and CuSO4. And I’ve gotta use a double recrystallisation to do it.

Now now… Now I wonder why I didn’t go ahead with Natural Science Tripos at Cambridge and picked the lab intensive course of Imperial College.

Tags: Personal