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| water and oxygen. oh, water and oxygen... |
Water and oxygen. These are the two most necessary molecules to human beings. For those who synthesize nanocrystals in oils, like me, or like you, water and oxygen could be detrimental.
When you talk about synthetic skills, the dewater and drying process are the most important skills. Some reactions that go well under a pure inert condition would produce just a piece of junk under a small amount of oxygen or water. By just knowing little tips to make your reaction conditions better, you will be recognized as a chemist with an excellent synthetic skill!
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| Synthesis! That is what I am talking about here! |
Here, I listed several techniques that have been useful to
me when synthesizing inorganic nanomaterials.
(1) Adaptor with a stopcock
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| I am always surprised that adaptors with a stopcock are so less known. People should use a stopcock adaptor! You can buy it in here |
For example, when you want to use your dried solution for the next week and you do not want to keep it with the Schlenk line for a long time, this works better. Even normal molecules like oleic acid or oleylamine, I dry under vacuum and use it for later when necessary.
(2) Glove box
The glove box is the must when you handle very oxygen- or water-sensitive chemicals.
(3)
freeze-pump-thaw
The freeze-pump-thaw is good when you wanna dry low boiling point solvent! This is a nice SOP. https://depts.washington.edu/eooptic/linkfiles/Freeze_Pump_Thaw.pdf
Or if you like a video here is an excellent YouTube video
There are more techniques, such as molecular sieves, distillation, and recrystallization of chemicals. I hope this post would be a good starting point for your explore for further reaction tips!
Good luck with a pure reaction!
