The work has begun...not that I haven't been doing any. Today I started collecting data for the professor. We decided to get some data from the separation of methanol and water, using various combinations of the two.
So the first thing I did in the morning was to make up some solutions of methanol and water...The solutions were in different combinations, ranging from 88%Methanol/12% Water to 12% Methonol/88% Water. After making up the solutions I started injecting them into the CG (which I descibed in my earlier blog), one by one, at a volume of 0.2 microlitres (the smaller the volume of the solution injected, the more accurate the data) and I saved the graphs plotted on the computer as the detector detected the chemicals. At first I did the separations (10 separations) at an initial temperature of 60 degrees celsius...however the peaks for the water and methanol overlapped in the graphs - hence it would be difficult to separate the two or get accurate data. So I talked to Dr. Virnelson (who is the expert when it comes to working with the GC), and he suggested that I try the separations at a lower initial temperature. So, I set to work doing the experiments at an initial rate of 50 degrees celsius and then 40 degrees celsius. And Voila! at 40 degrees celsius the peaks for the methanol and water that eluted were distinct and separate. I FELT VERY ACCOMPLISHED!
So, I have to report my findings to Prof. Wainright and show him the data I collected...and hopefully we'll be off to the next step: doing the separation of water/methanol/octanol!
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