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My TY work experience at the Centre for Synthesis and Chemical Biology and UCD School of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
Transition Year Student, Cian McCarthy, from Ashton School, Blackrock Rd, Cork spent the 4-8 April 2011 in the Centre for Synthesis and Chemical Biology and the UCD School of Chemistry and Chemical Biology working for Professor Pat Guiry.
Day 1
On my first day in UCD I went to meet with Professor Pat Guiry. He told me about the work he does in UCD and the building where I would be working. He then gave me a tour of the building and some of the different machines that they use. It was very interesting to see the range of machines used in chemistry. The machine that interested me the most was the NMR machine (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance).
During the week I even got to use one of the NMR machines to look at some aspirin that I made. I also got to see the new labs that were being built. When we finished the tour I was introduced to all the people that I was going to work with over the coming week.
Everyone was friendly and helped me whenever I needed help. I then started working in the lab. The first thing I had to make was aspirin. Unfortunately I was told that I couldn’t take any of my aspirin home. To make it I had to get acetic anhydride and react it with salicylic acid. I had to filter the solution a few times to purify it. I then used crystallisation to obtain the aspirin. I then filtered it to get the aspirin without any of the solvent being present. I needed to use a vacuum to filter it successfully.
At the end of the experiment I had made aspirin (acetyl salicylate) and acetic acid. I then tested the purity of the aspirin using two methods. I used a TLC to see how much of my starting material was left over, and I also used a NMR. Afterwards I was shown a programme called Chem Draw. This is used to draw out chemical diagrams on computers. I then used this to draw out my experiment of aspirin.
Day 2
On Tuesday morning I had to go to presentations done by first years in chemistry. They were put into groups of 3 to 5 and had to create a PowerPoint presentation on a chemical that they were assigned to. They had to cover the structure of the chemical, the history and possible reactions. Some parts of it were interesting to see, and I also learnt about what sort of things you have to do in University. Other parts of it were quite confusing as I didn’t really understand some of the language, and some parts were a bit boring as it went on for 2 and a half hours. But at the end of it I didn’t feel too bad and I found it different as I’ve never seen something like this done before.
After lunch I started working in the lab again. This time I was doing an experiment to analyse what sort of substances are in algae, and to see if humans could medically benefit from algae. To get a sample of the nutrients that are in algae I had to crush a sample then add it to some solvent. I then mixed it over a heat plate. I then used a machine which was a Rotary Evaporator. This was to get rid of the solvent to obtain the wanted sample. I then tested his sample using a TLC. I viewed the TLC under normal light, UV light and using stain. I’m sorry to report that there was no medical breakthrough. During the experiment I spent a lot of time waiting for a chemical reaction to take place and also waiting for the Rotary Evaporator to finish.
Tuesday was interesting because in the lab I wasn’t creating anything new but trying to obtain something that is already there. This was a different type of chemistry that I didn’t really know about before.
Day 3
On Wednesday I perfected the art of waiting. The original plan for the day was for me to create some paracetamol, but the experiment was too much like aspirin, so instead I did an experiment on the reduction of acetophenone using sodium borohydride. During the experiment there were a few times when I had to wait around for different things to happen, such as a chemical reaction.
There were also other bits where I had to slowly add chemicals to the solution. But it was very interesting and I had to continuously monitor the temperature and reaction of the substance. I had to add acid solution to create a chemical reaction. After this I left for lunch waiting for the reaction to finish.
After lunch I came back to see my solution. Unfortunately in the solution there were all the other substances. I had to separate them out to obtain what I wanted. I did this by putting the whole mixture into a separatory funnel. I then extracted all of the substances that I didn’t need. I did this twice to make sure that I had no water left in the mixture using ether to separate the different components. I then used the Rotary Evaporator to get rid of the solvent. Then I did an IR to see if I had actually created what I wanted. It turns out that my experiment was successful. I also calculated my yield. I achieved a yield of over 90%.
This was a good taste of chemistry. It really showed me what chemistry is like. Making different substances and creating chemical reactions.
Day 4
On Thursday I went to a meeting in the morning. In the meeting all the people had to show how a chemical reaction worked and what happens within it. To me it seemed a little bit complicated but I understood what they were doing.
After the meeting I was going to do some work in the lab. Unfortunately there was a bit of a problem as the person who was meant to be taking me was sick that day. So instead I did what was assigned for the afternoon which was being shown all of the different instruments they use in the labs and what they use to analyse their samples.
I was shown the NMR room, the IR machine, the polarimeter machine, a machine to find the melting point of a solid, a KF (Karl Fischer) meter, GC/MPLC and I was also showed how Mass Spectrometry works. I found it interesting to see all the different machines they use.
Some of them were quite complicated such as the NMR and Mass Spectrometry but most of them I understood. I found that Mass Spectrometry was very accurate and very delicate. What they do is they shoot atoms in an arc using magnetic fields to control the direction and they can calculate the weight of the atom by the time it takes to complete the arc and the weight is given to the forth decimal place.
Day 5
On Friday morning things moved slower than usual. Everyone was taking things slow and working away. The main thing I did today was writing up my report on the week. I did a lot this week and there was a lot to take in but I wasn’t overloaded and I feel great that I got a chance to see what it is like in University and what people do.
I thoroughly enjoyed my week in UCD and it was a great chance to experience things that happen in the labs of a University. I’ve learnt loads of new things including ways to analyse my reactions. I will take all I’ve learnt this week back with me to Cork. This was a great opportunity for me as it’s helping me decide what I want to do for the Leaving Cert.
Cian McCarthy
Life Scieces and the e as well a range of joint degrees comprising two science
subjects.
