Back to the Grind
Greetings, readers! The past week was spent getting acquainted with the lab, how to find everything (chemicals and consumables), how to use everything without getting in someone else's way, getting trained on some of the instrumentation. It's a huge lab, and there are so many machines for doing mechanochemistry here! At least four different types of mixer mills for grinding, a twin screw extruder, and RAMs (resonant acoustic mixers). In the building there is a whole floor for characterization: X-Ray diffractometers (I counted four in one room), NMR, Liquid chromatographs and various types of mass spectrometers. In the group itself there is Powder XRD and TGA. So everything anyone could need is here, if you know how to use it or can find someone to help you. Everyone is very kind and helpful. Before I start exploring new things, I need to make sure that my basic synthesis works the same way as I'm used to at Barry, so I need to replicate synthesis of tetraphenylporphyrin by mechanochemistry in the way I know it works, then characterize. I got the chemistry done last week, but not the characterization yet. Will be working on that next.
This weekend I walked not too far from my apartment to a section of Birmingham called "Brindley Place", which is near the canals and is basically a commercial area with restaurants, shopping, etc. Also got some pictures of Legoland, next to the Arena. They have a Lego version of Ozzy the Bull from the train station, which is quite interesting.
