Nothing but Chemistry

It's Thursday again. YES, Practicals AGAIN!

Just like what I've mentioned in my previous post, this practical was done individually. and guess what? 

I SCREWED THIS PRACTICAL BIG TIME!

Come to think of that, it's like I've been cursed by someone badly or something. I've never really completed any of my practicals without having to do them for a GAZILLION TIMES for this sem, as far as I know. and as for this one. I can say it's going straight down to the stinky drain! Now, let me enlighten you how bad it was. 

*You'll probably need a bin or something, just in case you feel like vomiting blood or something out from your stomach.*

Experiment was divided into 3 parts. 

1.  I added the wrong volume of acetic anhydride. It was supposed to be 4.0ml. I thought I've to press the thing down for 4 times. (which was apparently WRONG!) The crystals were having a hard time to form and hence, byebye to first batch of newly prepared mixture.
2. Redo the mixture. Heated it with steam bath. Waited for 5-10 minutes. Done! Brought my flask back to my bench. *I was trying to do it quickly because I was afraid that I'll be far behind everyone else + there are three parts all together, which takes quite a long time to complete all of them* So, according to the lab manual, "COOL THE MIXTURE TO ROOM TEMPERATURE, then add 40 ml of deionised water into the flask". So, as I've just said, I was trying to finish up quickly. So, I added the deionised water into my flask while it is still kind of hot. and GOD KNOWS WHAT HAPPEN! 

MY SOLUTION EVENTUALLY EXPLODED! 

NO KIDDING! 

It was like "BOP!"

and some smokey effects!

The solution came skyrocketing out from the flask and landed on my book, hands, FACE (i think)! I was just staring blankly at my flask! trying to digest what had just happened before I started getting all panicky! and GOD! The smell was so freaking strong that you basically feel like fainting! The smell of vinegar! But even worst than that! EWWW! 

So, my instructor quickly brought my flask to the chamber. I think I've just got my instructor into a big trouble because I did that right infront of his "instructor". 

You get what I meant right? (my instructor's instructor = boss?) 

Lesson learnt:

Never ever add deionised water into a hot solution containing sacylic acid + acetic anhydride + concentrated sulphuric acid! It's just too tragic!

3. and so I had to do another one since my second batch just exploded! The third batch was going all-so-smoothly until the crystalisation part. We had to pour our crystals into a small (I don't know what you call them), but it's like a small tray? that is attach to a flask and the flask is attached to another flask with a vaccum to filter the impurities. 

We need pure crystals (THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT OF THE EXPERIMENT). So, I was fixing everything in place. Saw the pump was not working. So, I decided to switch to another pump. And MY GLITTERY CRYSTALS just fell everywhere on the table. Apparently the tray was like just on top of the opening of the conical flask. So, it's really unstable. GOD! I felt like crying. People from the other groups were totally staring at me! Feeling ridiculously helpless. I swept all the crystals that were on the table back into the tray. (not sure if I'm allowed to, but.....) 

After changing the pumps, WAS READY TO FILTER. and my tray just went TANG! Fell on the table again! FOR GOD SAKE! my crystals were on the table again. Was trying real hard to suppress the urge to SWEAR out loud! tried to push those pretty crystals back into the tray again like the first time but failed miserably. Luckily, my instructor said that it was fine. So, i continued with the other parts.

4. TLC! I repeated TLC for...Well, I don't know....  more than three times until I was running short of time. Ended up with a bloody screwed TLC and hence a stupid looking TLC was pasted on my book.

That's about everything, i guess! 

ended up with a screwed TLC!

ended up with some fake + wrong calculations!

ended up with many brown spots on my book!

ended up like a walking ETHANOIC ACID fella! 

(I still smell like vinegar after bathing. WTH!)

Ended up really disappointed!

EXTREMELY EMO!

In fact, this experiment makes me ponder: "Is science really my thing?"