Week 8: 2-CAP, 2-CAP, and More 2-CAP!

On Monday I ran the 98 hour samples from the leap tank sediments on the HPLC and prepped the TNT samples for Hayley to analyze. I also made a new 2-CAP stock solution since I was running out of the one I made earlier. This new stock is much more concentrated, about 5 times more, so it should last a bit longer. Dr. Tratnyek received some graphene samples from a professor at PSU that are supposed to be excellent catalysts, so I prepped for the 2-CAP and TNT tests we would run on them. There were two graphene catalysts, Au-Pd heterostructure and Au-Pd alloy, plus a control graphene that wouldn't act as a catalyst, called exfoliated graphene. To prep for the experiment, I filled 8 glass bottles with 75 mL of DI water each, 4 for the 2-CAP tests and 4 for Hayley to do the TNT tests. Three bottles for the different graphenes, and one extra for only DI water to act as a control.

On Tuesday I began the 2-CAP graphene experiment by spiking a DI water control with the same volume of 2-CAP that I would use to spike the other bottles. I ran this in the HPLC to make sure that I had calculated the correct amount of 2-CAP and that my stock solution had been made correctly. Then I spiked the exfoliated graphene bottle and took samples at 0, 10, 60, and 120 minutes after the spike. I ran all these samples in the HPLC to make sure that there wasn't any adsorption of 2-CAP by the graphene. After I took the 1 hour sample of the exfoliated graphene, I spiked the Au-Pd heterostructure with 2-CAP and took samples at 0, 5, 10, 20, and 30 minutes after the spike. This reaction went really fast and by the time I got the 0 minute sample into the HPLC there was already a significant reduction of 2-CAP and the appearance of acetophenone (AP). 

After I finished with the exfoliated graphene and Au-Pd heterostructure sampling, I took samples from the room temperature, non-stored 2-CAP and TNT leap tank sediments (148 hour samples). Once that was finished I took the other leap tank sediments out of the -80 degree and 25 degree storage areas. I brought them into the glovebox and transferred them into amber glass bottles then added 20 mL of carbonate buffer to each bottle and sealed them all anaerobically. I had 12 bottles total, 6 for 2-CAP and 6 for TNT. Three of the 2-CAP bottles were stored at -80 degrees, the other three were stored at 25 degrees, and the same with the TNT bottles. These bottles were left overnight to sit on the benchtop since there wasn't anymore room on the rotator/roller. At this point I ran out of time so I couldn't test the Au-Pd alloy. Dimin tested that one and ran the samples on the HPLC as well. Wednesday was really busy for me, but it's nice to be busy when the work is interesting.

On Thursday I spiked the 12 sediment bottles I'd prepped on Wednesday, 6 with 2-CAP and 6 with TNT. The HPLC needed to be flushed clean again so I didn't get a chance to analyze any of my samples, but I did take samples at 0 minutes and 2 hours after the initial spikes. It doesn't sound like a lot, but that took up a majority of my day on Thursday. On Friday I took 24 hour samples of the 2-CAP and TNT 1 week storage samples and now that the HPLC is working again, I'm analyzing the T=0 samples I took yesterday. I won't finish all the samples but I'll definitely be able to finish analyzing them all on Monday. I only have to analyze the 2-CAP samples, since even though I'm the one taking the TNT samples all I have to do is give them to Hayley to run on the autosampler. 

Unfortunately I missed the brown bag seminar today (Friday) since I was busy taking the 24 hour samples and getting new acetonitrile for the HPLC. I'm sure it was informative but I least I already know I'm going to graduate school, so I don't feel like it was too much of a loos for me to miss the seminar. I definitely won't miss the OHSU tour next Wednesday though; that sounds fun. This week turned out to be pretty full even though I was home sick Monday. I can't believe I only have two weeks left until the final presentations! Time passed by so quickly. I'll have to start working on that soon, so until next Friday, good bye!