Hey, it's been a while.

Sorry 'bout that guys, hectic week of wrapping everything up... either that or I was lazy. Anywho This last week of research was pretty neat, we actually attempted to measure our samples via resonance raman. Its a neat way to read the vibrational modes of a chemical signal, instead of carefully raising the level of the vibrational quanta from the Highest Occupied state to the Lowest Unoccupied state using an infrared source, we blast it with a laser and record how the molecule relaxes. In short, we fired a high powered laser!!! it was so powerful, that it actually burned holes into our cuvettes (sample chambers). At first we didn't get a signal, but once we fine tuned everything and calibrated the instrument (using acetonitrile) we took saturated solutions of pyrazole, and for some reason, we didn't get a signal. However, when we used a solid sample, we acquired a pretty good spectrum. With our hopes up, we took our salts and attempted to get a spectra... however, the laser burned through our samples, but not the cuvette. We believe that this was because the sample absorbs color quite well (we used the Cu(II) pyrazole salt, the dark-purple one), and since it aborbs light so well, concentrated light actually scorched our sample. CRAZY!

Besides that, we created a poster (and by we, I mean Steve Miller) and we are ready for the Fall semester research symposium. Also, I found out that this research project may actually count toward my ACS Major (WHOO!).

I moved out today as well, and am chilling out with my family at the moment. For dinner my brother Jeff made these AWESOME Philly Cheesesteaks. Tender, well-spiced meat, delicious gooey cheese, and peppers and onions sauteed to perfection. It was to die for. Tomorrow night, I'm hanging out with Kiki and Trevor, watching the Red Bull Fluutag, seeing the Aquatennial and spending the night at the Brooklyn Park Hilton. Good Times.

Stay Classy,

Matt

Science, vacations, corpse flowers?

Now that you are SUPER EXCITED about my research, I must say that things are slowing down 'round here. Basically we are just wrapping everything up, doing data analysis, and cleaning. ALSO, Dr. Miller is actually wrapping up selling his old house, and moving into his new house, so he wasn't in today, nor will he be in tomorrow. So after running some spectra today, my weekend started at noon today :D (also payday tomorrow :DDD). So I'm taking this long (paid) weekend to actually look at graduate schools, with some help from Dr. Science. I'm looking for, like I said, a school with good organometallic programs. So far, I've looked at Stanford and UW Madison and there are a couple of projects that I find interesting so far. For example, one research group from UW Mad (lead by Dr. Berry) is interested in studying methods of adding N and O to relatively unreactive organic molecules using Ruthenium/Nitrogen complexes as a catalyst http://www.chem.wisc.edu/users/berry. The search will continue of course.

That's not to say that my life outside chemistry isn't exciting, Kiki (my GF for people who didn't know that is doing an internship at the Childrens Theatre at Minneapolis!!!!! (http://youwiththewords.blogspot.com/) but I might miss the performances that she is helping to put together. So if you are in the cities in August and you wanna see some musicals at the Children's Theatre, support my GF (cuz I prolly can't :*(

The reason I might miss her performances is that this may be the last summer I get to go on vacations with my family. In early August, I will be going to the Klun Family Reunion in Madison for a couple of days. The next week we will be going to California to see the Monterrey, San Francisco, Sequoia National Forest, and wine country!!

Lastly, the corpse flower at Gustavus is going to flower soon!!!!!!! check it out, on campus or on line, I know I did...

Anyhow, the search for grad school continues, dinner's coming up (DCMcD is making meatballs) and I'm out of stuff to talk about today. Until next time...

Stay Classy,

Matt

PICTURES!!!

All of the solutions in order of periodicity

(V(III), Cr(III), Mn(II), Fe(II), Co(II) Ni(II), Cu(I), Cu(II))

Cobalt-Pyrazole Salt

Nickel Pyrazole Salt

Copper (I) Pyrazole Salt

Copper(II) Pyrazole Salt

On the bandwagon

OKAY, maybe I'm not the most original guy on the planet but I decided to start a blog (I give it about a month, but we'll see)

Anyhow, I'm Matt and I am going to be a senior ACS Chemistry major at Gustavus. At the moment, I'm going through a CRAZY transitional period in my life. As a senior chemistry major, there are three things on my mind, my summer research, grad school, and the inevitable future. In this blog, I just wanna break it down for you guys piece by piece, hopefully telling you guys about myself every once in a while.

Before explaining anything about what is going on with my research, I'd like to tell you how freaking awesome chemistry is!!! (my gf gets jealous sometimes) I love just about everything about chemistry, but I'm especially passionate about inorganic and organometallic systems. The reason I LOVE organometallic chemistry is that it involves the two main parts of chemistry, synthesis and spectroscopic analysis.
Synthesis is awesome because, in my mind, the elements are just building blocks and the slightest chemical change can effect a system DRASTICALLY. My favorite example comes from a lovely book called The Chemistry of Mind-Altering Drugs from a class I took in Jan '09.

On the left is Morphine, on the right is Thebaine. Morphine puts you to sleep, Thebaine causes strychnine-like convulsions. Just take a minute to appreciate how similar these molecules are... how the addition of CH3 and the loss of a hydrogen can kinda mess up your weekend. (both images from sigma-aldrich)
Spectroscopic analysis is awesome because it provides us a way to examine a system. Molecules are TINY. Extremely difficult to photograph too...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1209726/Single-molecule-million-times-smaller-grain-sand-pictured-time.html. HOWEVER, there are more practical ways to determine the structure of a system by using spectroscopic methods. Basically, shining different colors of light to examine different qualities for a chemical system.


My research (led by Dr. Steven Miller, with GS as my lab partner) is purely fundamental, we really have no goal for our research, besides exploration. We are making solutions of pyrazole and transition metals, and seeing how they are coordinating in solution. Pyrazole is very interesting electronically due to its two nitrogens with completely different electronic structures right next to each other. Pyrazole is a common molecule in medicine and natural products, so our research MAY affect catalysis of creating different medicines. At the moment, all we know is that the colors are very pretty (pictures to be posted soon), and the metals react with the pyrazole in very interesting ways. But I won't tell you about that for a little bit, we are still analyzing all of our data. Besides, I don't want to bore you too much.

Anywho, I think it's just about time for me to wrap things up. I'm planning on having dinner soon, and maybe calling Kiki, who inadvertently inspired me to start a blog by creating her own yesterday. Thanks for reading a rant by a guy aspiring to be an aspiring mad scientist. Please post and help me out on this blog, I enjoy criticism.

Stay Classy,
Matt