A Ramble of The Lab

Internet is back! So, I suppose I am, also. Since I am far too unenthusiastic about my current online course (related to business/analytical writing, what fun) to finish my assignment for the week at the moment, I thought I might write about my job so far before I get to work. Oh, and before reading Clayden (the organic text), too. There's always more Clayden to read. Must get back to group theory, too, really must. Anyway.

The job is at a processing facility involving quite a bit of chemicals (in both variety and quantity). Tasks are actually fairly routine: analyse various samples collected from various machines, and make adjustments based upon the results. (Vague, I know, but sufficient for future ramblings.) A basic analytical techie job, essentially. Well, it is a student position.

Naturally, there are lots of transfer pipettes (from 1 mL to 100 mL!) and pH meters. Also, as I have mentioned previously, there's a beautiful AA, and an (albeit antiquated) autotitrator. There's also an UV-Vis spectrophotometer, but I didn't have a chance to use that yet (looking forward to it, although the previous colorimeters I have used are kind of um, "senile"). Other cool gadgets include self-zeroing burettes (which are gorgeous, but they tend to "pop" in a most disturbing way), an automatic shaker for (plastic) separatory funnels, and a micropipette. There are also enormously huge (and clean) fume hoods. An incredibly nice change from first-year labs!

The analytical chemicals themselves are nothing exceptional, but they are all interesting in their own ways. There's the ususal acids and bases, iodometry reagents, a tidbit of organic (ethyl acetate, and formaldehyde solution), indicators (phenolphthalein, ferroin, and starch), acetylene (ok, "ethyne") for the AA, and (best of all) cerium (IV) sulfate. Our buffers are colour-coded with pastel shades. Yes, we have very colourful spills (ok, I have very colourful spills). The chemicals used for processing the company's products aren't too odd, either. However, it's awesome (literally) to see reagents available at such a large scale. (Metric) tons of mixtures, 25 kg sacks of inorganic salts, jugs of NaOH, drums of organic reagents covered with stickers and signs. Especially interesting is the tank of 93% sulfuric acid, complete with its very own dike.

The oddest thing about the lab is that, although it is analytical in nature, speed is more important than precision. For example, most people are taught to read burettes to 2 decimal places. We only read to one, and we don't do partial drops, either. Going a bit over the mark of a volumetric flask is considered acceptable. Simply rinsing pipettes in the sink is considered sufficient cleaning (versus actually pipetting water into the pipette). These methods are wreaking havoc with my precision, but it suits the lazy part of me just fine. On the other hand, we are expected to run multiple reactions simultaneously, and remember to watch over them all.

The people at the lab are very nice. Sure, there's the ever-present making fun of the newbie, but overall it's a nice place to work at. Everybody is helpful. Competent and efficient, also. However, nobody is particularly passionate about what they do (which is understandable).

Worst part of the job: waking up before the sun rises to get to work. Argh.

Oddest sight thus far: seeing my supervisor climb up a ladder to the top of a tank, and dump roughly 2 L of NaOH into it. Crude, but apparently effective. That's not the usual way to make an adjustment, by the way.

While the job is currently quite exciting for me (it's fun to see how fast and accurately can I complete a series of procedures, and to guess at the adjustments made to troubleshoot deviating results), I suspect that it will be anything but for someone who has worked in the lab for years - the excitement associated with the procedures pale after awhile. Oh well, it's a taste of what chemistry in industry is like for a entry-level worker, anyway.

Now, a reminder to self - take pictures! I keep forgetting, and sometimes things are a bit too busy for me to take pictures. Especially when reactions are running and colours are changing.

Note: I keep changing between "I" and "We". While that is not grammatically correct, I do it alot, and will continue to do so.

Onto my assignments...must not let my math and chemistry deteriorate!