K2FeO4 is pretty cool stuff. It’s relatively easy to make, has a nice purple color, and it’s a stronger oxidant than permanganate. Oh… and it reacts with water. You can dissolve it in water, but unless the solution is fairly alkaline, it will decompose rapidly, generating O2 as a product. It is being investigated for use as a cathode material for so-called “super-iron” batteries (using zinc anodes) and for its use as an oxidant for organic reactions. But its biggest claim to fame is its role in the area of water treatment.
A description of the methods used in water treatment facilities is too large to describe here, but one common method is flocculation, a technique used by both the Egyptians and Romans. The addition of alum and/or iron salts to the water to be treated, along with some lime, results in the precipitation of Al(OH)3, Fe(OH)2, and Fe(OH)3. As these precipitates sink, they drag undesirable particulate material along with them, resulting in cleaner water. Chlorine (or chloramines) is then added for disinfection purposes. Chlorine treatments are very successful at removing harmful bacteria, but there has always been a concern that its reaction with organic material still present in the water might form harmful compounds.
This concern has been confirmed by a recently completed 10-year study. Michael Plewa, a geneticist at the University of Illinois, has quantified the toxicity, genotoxicity, and carcinogenicity of these disinfectant by-products (DBPs) using a mammalian cell line specifically developed for this study. He found not only that these DBPs are harmful, but that the degree of toxicity can depend on other factors. For example, it was found that water which contained bromine and iodine (seawater or aquifers associated with ancient sea beds) generated even more toxic DBPs. And DBPs which contained nitrogen were more toxic, genotoxic, and carcinogenic than DBPs which contained no nitrogen.
Plewa is especially concerned with swimming pools and hot tubs, which he refers to as DBP reactors. Organic material from swimmers -- sweat, urine, sunscreen, cosmetics, as well as some disgusting stuff – sits in contact with the chlorinated water for long periods of time, generating DBP levels up to ten times higher than drinking water. This may explain the higher levels of bladder cancer found in people who spend a lot of time swimming in pools.
This is where potassium ferrate comes into play, at least for water treatment applications. If all the organic material could be removed prior to the application of chlorine, then DBPs couldn’t form. So instead of adding iron salts and lime to the water, one could just throw in some K2FeO4. Ferrate would chew up the organic material in the water and then decompose to form the Fe(OH)3 precipitant which removes the particulate matter as usual. And unlike chlorine, you cannot really add too much ferrate – you’ll just end up with more harmless Fe(OH)3. For this reason, ferrate is often referred to as a "green" oxidant. And once the ferrrate has done its work, you can add chlorine without the fear of forming DBPs.
The use of ferrate for this purpose has been investigated for over thirty years. One of the big drawbacks has always been the cost of manufacturing K2FeO4, but last year Battelle announced a lower cost method for its production, so it may yet come to pass.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Chemists vs. Engineers
One of the guys in our group at work is a co-op student from a local university. As part of his engineering degree, he spends every other semester working in our lab receiving a massive dose of industrial reality and forced indoctrination into the world of engineering. His current stint ends this week, so yesterday he presented a summation of this semester’s work to the group. It wasn’t supposed to be a big deal -- a quick, informal 15 minute talk -- but the head of our division (3 or 4 steps up the corporate ladder) decided she’d attend the presentation, and the intensity level ratcheted up a notch or two. Of course, the division head ended up asking all the questions while the rest of us just smiled and watched the student sweat.
The questions were all good, although many of them concerned engineering protocols and methodologies of which I am woefully (and thankfully ignorant). Unfortunately for the student, there wasn’t much data with which to defend himself, due to situations mostly beyond his control. There had been a two month delay in getting the equipment up and running, due to the time required to implement various safety features in our labs. For some unfathomable reason, the safety guys had been (and still are) very nervous about the prospect of piping pure hydrogen and carbon monoxide throughout the building. They take safety much more seriously in industry than they do in graduate school, where safety protocols often involve nothing more than wearing safety glasses and not eating food in the lab, both of which are largely ignored anyway.
Anyway, the presentation ended, 90 minutes later, with very little blood spilt, and with the conclusion that several of the test variables would need to be quantified (by me, unfortunately) before the student’s return in July. So less than two hours later I was attending a meeting to discuss the quantification of these variables – a meeting attended by myself and 3 engineers. I recall the various good-natured rivalries between chemists and chemical engineers back in school, but we all generally thought alike. But these guys are process engineers. Acronyms like DFSS, MCE, Green Y, Red X, and MFEA were flying fast and furious. Process engineers have a very different way of approaching these types of problems. As a chemist, I just want to understand which variables are of interest and how they affect the final results. Process engineers are more interested in maximizing the reproducibility and repeatability of those variables.
For example, let’s suppose I were tasked with improving a known chemical synthesis. I would try to understand the chemical steps involved, I would isolate the important variables, and I would systematically make changes to the procedure to increase the product yield. Process engineers would be more interested in making the prep more reproducible and operator independent (meaning that everyone who followed the written procedure would get exactly the same yield). As a chemist, I might try different methods of cleaning/drying/purifying the starting materials/solvents. Process engineers would rather write solvent specifications and protocols to ensure that the level of impurities were reproducible, although not necessarily lower. They would sacrifice yield for the holy grail of repeatability. In their world, attempts to maximize yields shouldn’t occur until later. Process engineers feel this mindset allows them to solve chemical related problems without having to actually understand the chemistry.
In yesterday’s meeting, these engineers actually wanted to devote almost half of our allotted time just verifying the repeatability of our test as a function of which of us was actually running the test. An analysis of the test variables in question would be squeezed in later. It’s going to be a long three months.
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Note: I'm not trying to rag on process engineers too much here. Their techniques are exactly what you need when you are trying to design and operate an industrial process. I would fail miserably were I to ever attempt such a thing. But these techniques don't work so well in the research arena. There is a reason why advanced development groups and product development groups are generally kept apart.
The questions were all good, although many of them concerned engineering protocols and methodologies of which I am woefully (and thankfully ignorant). Unfortunately for the student, there wasn’t much data with which to defend himself, due to situations mostly beyond his control. There had been a two month delay in getting the equipment up and running, due to the time required to implement various safety features in our labs. For some unfathomable reason, the safety guys had been (and still are) very nervous about the prospect of piping pure hydrogen and carbon monoxide throughout the building. They take safety much more seriously in industry than they do in graduate school, where safety protocols often involve nothing more than wearing safety glasses and not eating food in the lab, both of which are largely ignored anyway.
Anyway, the presentation ended, 90 minutes later, with very little blood spilt, and with the conclusion that several of the test variables would need to be quantified (by me, unfortunately) before the student’s return in July. So less than two hours later I was attending a meeting to discuss the quantification of these variables – a meeting attended by myself and 3 engineers. I recall the various good-natured rivalries between chemists and chemical engineers back in school, but we all generally thought alike. But these guys are process engineers. Acronyms like DFSS, MCE, Green Y, Red X, and MFEA were flying fast and furious. Process engineers have a very different way of approaching these types of problems. As a chemist, I just want to understand which variables are of interest and how they affect the final results. Process engineers are more interested in maximizing the reproducibility and repeatability of those variables.
For example, let’s suppose I were tasked with improving a known chemical synthesis. I would try to understand the chemical steps involved, I would isolate the important variables, and I would systematically make changes to the procedure to increase the product yield. Process engineers would be more interested in making the prep more reproducible and operator independent (meaning that everyone who followed the written procedure would get exactly the same yield). As a chemist, I might try different methods of cleaning/drying/purifying the starting materials/solvents. Process engineers would rather write solvent specifications and protocols to ensure that the level of impurities were reproducible, although not necessarily lower. They would sacrifice yield for the holy grail of repeatability. In their world, attempts to maximize yields shouldn’t occur until later. Process engineers feel this mindset allows them to solve chemical related problems without having to actually understand the chemistry.
In yesterday’s meeting, these engineers actually wanted to devote almost half of our allotted time just verifying the repeatability of our test as a function of which of us was actually running the test. An analysis of the test variables in question would be squeezed in later. It’s going to be a long three months.
-----------------------------------------
Note: I'm not trying to rag on process engineers too much here. Their techniques are exactly what you need when you are trying to design and operate an industrial process. I would fail miserably were I to ever attempt such a thing. But these techniques don't work so well in the research arena. There is a reason why advanced development groups and product development groups are generally kept apart.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
The CIMS -- No, Not the Sims
So far, my new job appears to be working out pretty well. My official job title is "test engineer" although I'm neither an engineer nor well versed in the testing protocols so beloved by product engineers, but it's a job and it allows me to get my feet wet in the world of fuel cells. It's a good time to be getting in on this project, as the number of chemistry-related subprojects is beginning to grow quickly and most of the people in the group are engineers (non-chemical). Now don't misunderstand me, these engineers are very good process engineers and they've picked up a fair amount of chemical knowledge over the years, but some of these chemistry projects really need a chemist's touch to finish them in a timely fashion.
With these projects in mind, I've already been grabbing some of my old equipment from the company's storage facility. This equipment is still in storage after all these months partly because the shiny, new lab my old group was supposed to move into is still not completed and partly because there really aren't any chemists left in that group capable of using the equipment. Anyway, I never know exactly what I'm to find during these salvage excursions. Remember the warehouse scene at the end of the "Raiders of the Lost Ark"? That's what our storage site looks like. This week I struck paydirt and I brought back the CIMS unit.
CIMS stands for Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer and it's great for analyzing the products typically generated during gas phase heterogeneous catalysis. In general, mass spectrometers operate by ionizing molecules using a variety of methods, followed by their separation via magnetic fields. Most mass spectrometers are electron impact types, which means they ionize molecules by bombarding them with electrons. Unfortunately, a fair number of molecules, especially organic ones, do not take kindly to this technique and tend to fragment into smaller pieces before the spectrometer can detect them. The CIMS alleviates some of this problem by first ionizing an inert gas like Kr and then letting the Kr+ ions do all the ionization. This kindler, gentler approach allows many organic molecules to remain intact and thus detectable. As an additional bonus, the appropriate selection of source gas allows you to choose which molecules to ionize. For example, detecting CO in the presence of nitrogen is problematic as they both have the same mass. This usually leaves you with four choices: find another analytical method, ignore the CO, use helium for all your experiments, or choose a new project. But with the CIMS, Xe+ only ionizes the CO, allowing the N2 to sail blissfully past the detectors.
It's not a high resolution instrument , so it only costs about $250K, but it is small (a cube about 2.5 feet per side), portable (it has wheels), and the software is sweet. The unit started right up without a hitch, but the xenon source gas cylinder is essentially empty. Xenon isn't cheap and the CIMS requires an isotopically pure sample ($$$) and so we're talking $3000 here. I haven't told the boss yet how much this free mass spectrometer is going to cost him.
I still miss working with lab glassware and synthetic chemistry, but I do have to admit this instrument does rock.
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It's old news, but I'd like to add my congratulations to M. Frederick Hawthorne for having been awarded the 2009 Priestley medal for his work on boron. I admit to not having paid much attention to boron chemistry since grad school, but Hawthorne is currently located at the University of Missouri (my alma mater) and anyone who can make a water soluble boron cluster is okay in my book.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Being Flexible as a Chemist
My freshman year was almost over. Final exams would take place in about two weeks and I was already beginning to prepare myself mentally. Almost as an afterthought, the chemistry professor assigned us one last chapter to read on solid-state chemistry. It wasn’t a real assignment – the professor never mentioned the chapter again and as I correctly surmised, it wasn’t going to be covered on the final exam. It should have been a meaningless blip in my academic career, quickly forgotten, but I still remember that chapter after all these years, or at least the section which covered the concept of non-stoichiometric materials.
I remember absolutely hating it.
We had just spent the entire year having the “Law of Multiple Proportions” hammered into our brains. “Atoms combine in ratios of natural numbers,” they would say. “If you can’t grasp this basic concept, you’ll never get a job as a chemist. You’ll just have to settle for being a doctor or lawyer or telemarketer.” Frightening words indeed! But now, just weeks before the final, I was discovering that this law was more of a suggestion.
I think I even remember one of the provided examples. It was NiO1.03. WTF? 1.03? What sort of sick joke was this? It looked like something a freshman engineer would write, one who hadn’t yet grasped the concept of rounding. This deviation from stoichiometry was within the experimental error associated with an elemental analysis. I cannot begin to imagine what my thesis advisor would have done had I submitted an article discussing the properties of the V10O27.976- ion. The beatings would have been severe. The whole idea seemed stupid to me.
Fast forward to the present and my mind is now quite a bit more receptive to this concept. The field of non-stoichiometric materials is huge, incredibly huge, due to their special properties (catalytic, electronic, and optical). As a transition metal chemist, I now understand that the many oxidation states available to most transition metals can lead to mixed oxides, many of which are non-stoichiometric. I’ve also come to the realization that over half of my projects over the years have involved non-stoichiometric oxides in some fashion. Examples would include ZrO2/CeO2 solid solutions, various doped metal oxide catalysts, zeolites, and, at the present time, fuel cell cathodes. (Strictly speaking, zeolites are not really considered non-stoichiometric materials since there are no mixed oxidation states available, but with formulae such as NaxAlxSiO(2+2x), where x can be < 0.01, I’m still counting them.)
The defect sites in these non-stoichiometric oxides make them wonderful catalysts, especially for redox reactions. The vacancies left by the loss of oxygen atoms in the crystal structure can create materials with the ability for ion conduction (usually at higher temperatures). This leads to their use in gas sensors, batteries, and fuel cells. (La1-xSrx)yMnO3-z is a typical oxide used in fuel cell cathodes. Non-stoichiometric oxides are here to stay.
And I'm loving it.
The moral of the story: Don’t dismiss new concepts in chemistry until you’ve had a chance to work with them first.
I remember absolutely hating it.
We had just spent the entire year having the “Law of Multiple Proportions” hammered into our brains. “Atoms combine in ratios of natural numbers,” they would say. “If you can’t grasp this basic concept, you’ll never get a job as a chemist. You’ll just have to settle for being a doctor or lawyer or telemarketer.” Frightening words indeed! But now, just weeks before the final, I was discovering that this law was more of a suggestion.
I think I even remember one of the provided examples. It was NiO1.03. WTF? 1.03? What sort of sick joke was this? It looked like something a freshman engineer would write, one who hadn’t yet grasped the concept of rounding. This deviation from stoichiometry was within the experimental error associated with an elemental analysis. I cannot begin to imagine what my thesis advisor would have done had I submitted an article discussing the properties of the V10O27.976- ion. The beatings would have been severe. The whole idea seemed stupid to me.
Fast forward to the present and my mind is now quite a bit more receptive to this concept. The field of non-stoichiometric materials is huge, incredibly huge, due to their special properties (catalytic, electronic, and optical). As a transition metal chemist, I now understand that the many oxidation states available to most transition metals can lead to mixed oxides, many of which are non-stoichiometric. I’ve also come to the realization that over half of my projects over the years have involved non-stoichiometric oxides in some fashion. Examples would include ZrO2/CeO2 solid solutions, various doped metal oxide catalysts, zeolites, and, at the present time, fuel cell cathodes. (Strictly speaking, zeolites are not really considered non-stoichiometric materials since there are no mixed oxidation states available, but with formulae such as NaxAlxSiO(2+2x), where x can be < 0.01, I’m still counting them.)
The defect sites in these non-stoichiometric oxides make them wonderful catalysts, especially for redox reactions. The vacancies left by the loss of oxygen atoms in the crystal structure can create materials with the ability for ion conduction (usually at higher temperatures). This leads to their use in gas sensors, batteries, and fuel cells. (La1-xSrx)yMnO3-z is a typical oxide used in fuel cell cathodes. Non-stoichiometric oxides are here to stay.
And I'm loving it.
The moral of the story: Don’t dismiss new concepts in chemistry until you’ve had a chance to work with them first.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Donut Powered Solar Cells
I came across the following video this weekend. Apparently powdered donuts are an important constituent in the drive to harness the power of the sun. Yes, nano-chemists will do anything for attention. And yes, magnetic stirrers DO rule!
So the powdered sugar in donuts can contain up to 1% TiO2? I guess organic chemistry always benefits from the addition of some inorganic chemicals.
This video is one of the entries in the ACS Nanotation Video contest. If you want to see more, click here.
EDIT: I now see that this video was already posted over at the Chemistry Blog earlier last week. Not sure how I missed it, but this demonstrates the importance of keeping up with the literature when writing about current events.
So the powdered sugar in donuts can contain up to 1% TiO2? I guess organic chemistry always benefits from the addition of some inorganic chemicals.
This video is one of the entries in the ACS Nanotation Video contest. If you want to see more, click here.
EDIT: I now see that this video was already posted over at the Chemistry Blog earlier last week. Not sure how I missed it, but this demonstrates the importance of keeping up with the literature when writing about current events.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Disappearing Elements? - Part IV
Yet another element has turned up on the “Where’s it going to come from in the future?” list. (See my earlier posts). Recently, Fetzthechemist discussed the use of Nd-Fe-B magnets slated to be used in upcoming wind-to-energy conversion devices. His point was that the world’s current capacity for producing neodymium was insufficient to meet these future needs. This doesn’t mean the project is necessarily doomed. As a general rule, the inevitable price spikes which occur whenever demand exceeds supply often leads to the discovery of new, albeit more expensive, sources and methods of extraction. But at what point does the difference between running out of an element and being unable to use it due to cost become moot? Developers of new technologies will need to start paying more attention to the future availability of their starting materials. Maybe those alchemists obsessed with the transmutation of metals were just preparing for the future.
I’ve also noticed that many of these disappearing elements seem to be associated with new energy technologies. My first post on this subject came after reading a stock analysis criticizing a company’s (First Solar) plan to significantly increase their solar cell production – a plan which would have required using 16% of the world’s current capacity of tellurium. Hopefully this is not a trend which will continue.
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On the brighter side, my son no longer needs training wheels for his bike. My enthusiasm, however, is somewhat dampened by the soreness which I’m now experiencing after having spent yesterday running along side his bike, trying to help him maintain balance, while accelerating down our street. (Our sub has no sidewalks) He was probably ready to learn this last summer, but we never got around to it. So it took him less than a day to learn, to my great relief.
I’ve also noticed that many of these disappearing elements seem to be associated with new energy technologies. My first post on this subject came after reading a stock analysis criticizing a company’s (First Solar) plan to significantly increase their solar cell production – a plan which would have required using 16% of the world’s current capacity of tellurium. Hopefully this is not a trend which will continue.
-------------------------------------------
On the brighter side, my son no longer needs training wheels for his bike. My enthusiasm, however, is somewhat dampened by the soreness which I’m now experiencing after having spent yesterday running along side his bike, trying to help him maintain balance, while accelerating down our street. (Our sub has no sidewalks) He was probably ready to learn this last summer, but we never got around to it. So it took him less than a day to learn, to my great relief.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
The Alchemy of Zinc
Back in the day, alchemists apparently spent all their time attempting to turn base metals into gold. I say apparently, since that is the common perception of alchemists. In reality, most alchemists were devoted to what was often referred to as the “Great Work.” According to alchemical theories, much of what is created by nature is imperfect, and by applying the art of alchemy, natural substances can be brought to a higher state of perfection. Since gold was the height of perfection for metals, it was thought that base metals could be transmuted into gold merely by removing these imperfections. The Philosophers Stone wasn’t just about making gold or the “Elixer of Life”, it was a process/device/concept for bringing about perfection.
Color was very important to the alchemists, perhaps since it was one of the few clues with which they had to go on during their experiments. Colors and color changes were rigorously recorded and eventually incorporated into many of the alchemical theories. Certain color sequences were expected during the path towards perfection. In the transmutation of base metals into gold, for example, a color sequence of black to white to yellow to purple was thought to be required. Later theories redefined the sequence as black to white to red. While this fascination with colors may have led them astray on occasion, it has also led to a vast array of wonderful, full color illustrations, intricately drawn and full of alchemical symbolism. Here is one such example.
An experiment often touted as reminiscent of alchemy and demonstrating the relative ease of generating color changes involves the apparent conversion of a copper penny into silver or gold. Simply dissolve some Zn powder in warm NaOH solution, toss in a penny, and watch the penny turn silver as a coating of Zn forms on its surface. Heating the penny turns it gold as the Zn and Cu alloy to form brass. (My kids were duly impressed when I performed this experiment for them, informing me that it was “awesome”, but considering they said the same thing when I turned phenolphthalein red, the “awesomeness” bar may be set pretty low.)
But why does this work? I’ve coated pennies with silver and mercury before, but zinc is more electropositive than copper. Based on electrochemical potentials, zinc shouldn’t plate out on copper -- copper should be plating out on zinc. Apparently I’m not the only person to wonder about this, as web pages devoted to this effect can be found throughout the Internet, for example, here and here.
First of all, Zn dissolves in NaOH to make zincate ion and hydrogen.
Zn + 2OH- + 2H2O ----> Zn(OH)42- + H2
Okay, that’s straightforward chemistry. But how does the copper reduce the Zn(OH)42-? The answer is that it doesn’t. Surprisingly, copper is not the reductant . Copper is not oxidized and it does not go into solution. Copper’s role is to create a galvanic cell with the undissolved portion of the zinc powder. Zinc does not plate out on the penny until the copper is in direct contact with zinc metal. It turns out that zinc metal is the reductant, which sounds bizarre, at least to me. Once the zinc and copper metals are in contact and the galvanic cell is created, the zinc begins to oxidize…
Zn + 4OH- ----> Zn(OH)42- + 2e-
And its electrons are now available to reduce the zincate ion near the surface of the penny...
Zn(OH)42- + 2e- ---> Zn + 4OH-
So the overall reaction is:
Zn + Zn(OH)42- ----> Zn(OH)42- + Zn
Basically there is no net reaction! Which means the zinc is essentially just migrating from the surface of the zinc powder to the surface of the penny. At first glance, this would appear to violate the laws of thermodynamics, but obviously it doesn’t. I assume there is some sort of entropy effect here, perhaps related to the galvanic cell, but I don’t know the exact cause. In any case, this reaction appears just as mystical as alchemy itself!
If anyone happens to know any more about this process, I’d be happy to hear from you.
Color was very important to the alchemists, perhaps since it was one of the few clues with which they had to go on during their experiments. Colors and color changes were rigorously recorded and eventually incorporated into many of the alchemical theories. Certain color sequences were expected during the path towards perfection. In the transmutation of base metals into gold, for example, a color sequence of black to white to yellow to purple was thought to be required. Later theories redefined the sequence as black to white to red. While this fascination with colors may have led them astray on occasion, it has also led to a vast array of wonderful, full color illustrations, intricately drawn and full of alchemical symbolism. Here is one such example.
An experiment often touted as reminiscent of alchemy and demonstrating the relative ease of generating color changes involves the apparent conversion of a copper penny into silver or gold. Simply dissolve some Zn powder in warm NaOH solution, toss in a penny, and watch the penny turn silver as a coating of Zn forms on its surface. Heating the penny turns it gold as the Zn and Cu alloy to form brass. (My kids were duly impressed when I performed this experiment for them, informing me that it was “awesome”, but considering they said the same thing when I turned phenolphthalein red, the “awesomeness” bar may be set pretty low.)
But why does this work? I’ve coated pennies with silver and mercury before, but zinc is more electropositive than copper. Based on electrochemical potentials, zinc shouldn’t plate out on copper -- copper should be plating out on zinc. Apparently I’m not the only person to wonder about this, as web pages devoted to this effect can be found throughout the Internet, for example, here and here.
First of all, Zn dissolves in NaOH to make zincate ion and hydrogen.
Zn + 2OH- + 2H2O ----> Zn(OH)42- + H2
Okay, that’s straightforward chemistry. But how does the copper reduce the Zn(OH)42-? The answer is that it doesn’t. Surprisingly, copper is not the reductant . Copper is not oxidized and it does not go into solution. Copper’s role is to create a galvanic cell with the undissolved portion of the zinc powder. Zinc does not plate out on the penny until the copper is in direct contact with zinc metal. It turns out that zinc metal is the reductant, which sounds bizarre, at least to me. Once the zinc and copper metals are in contact and the galvanic cell is created, the zinc begins to oxidize…
Zn + 4OH- ----> Zn(OH)42- + 2e-
And its electrons are now available to reduce the zincate ion near the surface of the penny...
Zn(OH)42- + 2e- ---> Zn + 4OH-
So the overall reaction is:
Zn + Zn(OH)42- ----> Zn(OH)42- + Zn
Basically there is no net reaction! Which means the zinc is essentially just migrating from the surface of the zinc powder to the surface of the penny. At first glance, this would appear to violate the laws of thermodynamics, but obviously it doesn’t. I assume there is some sort of entropy effect here, perhaps related to the galvanic cell, but I don’t know the exact cause. In any case, this reaction appears just as mystical as alchemy itself!
If anyone happens to know any more about this process, I’d be happy to hear from you.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Should the American Automotive Industry Be Saved?
Despite living in the Detroit area and working in the automotive sector, I’ve never mentioned the current plight of the American automakers, despite it being a major news story for the past several months. I have no idea if anyone outside of Michigan really cares one way or another about the subject, but what the heck – this is a blog and I have no chemistry items ready for today, so here’s my take….
As you might imagine, I’m generally for the idea of helping out the ailing auto industry. I admit to having a certain financial incentive in keeping the local economy from tanking even more than it already has. I also admit I probably wouldn’t care as much about the subject if I lived somewhere else. But I don’t, and since I’ve had a chance to see how the auto industry operates, up close and personal, I do perhaps have a little better idea about what’s happening than most people outside the state of Michigan, especially southern Republicans.
I’m certainly not an apologist for domestic automakers. I’ve laughed at, or cursed, many of their decisions over the years, and there have been plenty of instances in which I’ve thought the UAW should be blown up, but even I have to admit that things have indeed been changing (albeit slowly) over the last decade. Before I begin, I going to have to rant a little…
rant mode on
Forget all the crap you hear from politicians claiming that domestic automakers:
1. Haven’t changed for decades (hire a competent staff who has at least a clue about the auto industry)
2. haven’t worked on alternative energy vehicles (they could finance small countries with what they’ve spent in that area)
3. have been resisting tighter emissions and fuel economy requirements. (Okay, so that last one is definitely true, but name an industry that hasn’t. Energy related industries (a Republican favorite) like coal have resisted emissions and safety regulations for decades but haven’t been bashed for it the last 8 years. We’ll see if that changes now).
rant mode off
Look, had this crisis occurred ten years ago, I probably would have said, “Let them fail” too. They were behemoths, unable or unwilling to change, so perhaps a bankruptcy is what they needed. But after all the changes the automakers have gone through in the last 5-10 years to make themselves leaner, more responsive, and more cost effective, it would be a shame for them to fail now because of bad timing. Even the unions were beginning to understand that changes were coming, which I believe is one of the signs Armageddon is close at hand. It appeared that GM had turned things around. Their new cars were getting good reviews, they were selling well (before the credit crisis), the company’s cost structure was much better, the time required to design, develop, and build a new car was approaching that of their foreign competitors, and surveys indicated that they had pretty much matched the Japanese in terms of initial quality (it will be a few years before we know if how their 1-3 year quality grades out). Had the credit crisis not occurred when it did, we might well be reading glowing stories about how GM had turned it all around. But it did and so now certain decisions have to be made.
Do the automakers deserve to be saved? I don’t think they “deserve” it, but after all the changes they’ve made, they probably don’t “deserve” to fail either. Unfortunately, many of the U.S. Senators who bashed the automakers back in January were woefully ignorant (or pretending to be woefully ignorant -- surely their staffs can’t have been that misinformed) of these changes along with some basic facts about the automotive industry. Even if you ignore all the factual errors, the fact that the Senators which are pushing hardest for a domestic bankruptcy represent states which enjoy the presence of foreign auto plants and thus might benefit from such a bankruptcy lessens the validity of their arguments. Already, the argument that there is something inherently wrong with domestic automakers if they need to ask for government aid has been blown apart by the fact that even Toyota is doing the same thing. By the way, I should mention that those same foreign automakers have been quietly telling these Congressmen to tone down their rhetoric about the evils of government bailouts and the benefits of bankruptcy. A bankruptcy at GM would wipe out the already strained supplier base, which also supplies parts to the foreign automakers. Shutting down foreign owned auto plants in the south would not be particularly good for the people down there either.
Of course the real question is “What is in the best interests of the country?” Which will cost the country more? Bankruptcy or financial aid? And this is a question everyone must answer. If you don’t think a GM bankruptcy is going to affect you, you are kidding yourself. The domino effect of from a GM bankruptcy will take out a huge section of the economy, including areas that may not be apparent to people working in non-automotive areas. I’m not an economist, but it wouldn’t surprise me if such a collapse would prolong the current financial crisis by another 6 months, and that may be optomistic. Let’s make sure we get this right. Playing politics with this decision has the potential to damage the country even further.
OK, I’ll get down off the soapbox now.
As you might imagine, I’m generally for the idea of helping out the ailing auto industry. I admit to having a certain financial incentive in keeping the local economy from tanking even more than it already has. I also admit I probably wouldn’t care as much about the subject if I lived somewhere else. But I don’t, and since I’ve had a chance to see how the auto industry operates, up close and personal, I do perhaps have a little better idea about what’s happening than most people outside the state of Michigan, especially southern Republicans.
I’m certainly not an apologist for domestic automakers. I’ve laughed at, or cursed, many of their decisions over the years, and there have been plenty of instances in which I’ve thought the UAW should be blown up, but even I have to admit that things have indeed been changing (albeit slowly) over the last decade. Before I begin, I going to have to rant a little…
rant mode on
Forget all the crap you hear from politicians claiming that domestic automakers:
1. Haven’t changed for decades (hire a competent staff who has at least a clue about the auto industry)
2. haven’t worked on alternative energy vehicles (they could finance small countries with what they’ve spent in that area)
3. have been resisting tighter emissions and fuel economy requirements. (Okay, so that last one is definitely true, but name an industry that hasn’t. Energy related industries (a Republican favorite) like coal have resisted emissions and safety regulations for decades but haven’t been bashed for it the last 8 years. We’ll see if that changes now).
rant mode off
Look, had this crisis occurred ten years ago, I probably would have said, “Let them fail” too. They were behemoths, unable or unwilling to change, so perhaps a bankruptcy is what they needed. But after all the changes the automakers have gone through in the last 5-10 years to make themselves leaner, more responsive, and more cost effective, it would be a shame for them to fail now because of bad timing. Even the unions were beginning to understand that changes were coming, which I believe is one of the signs Armageddon is close at hand. It appeared that GM had turned things around. Their new cars were getting good reviews, they were selling well (before the credit crisis), the company’s cost structure was much better, the time required to design, develop, and build a new car was approaching that of their foreign competitors, and surveys indicated that they had pretty much matched the Japanese in terms of initial quality (it will be a few years before we know if how their 1-3 year quality grades out). Had the credit crisis not occurred when it did, we might well be reading glowing stories about how GM had turned it all around. But it did and so now certain decisions have to be made.
Do the automakers deserve to be saved? I don’t think they “deserve” it, but after all the changes they’ve made, they probably don’t “deserve” to fail either. Unfortunately, many of the U.S. Senators who bashed the automakers back in January were woefully ignorant (or pretending to be woefully ignorant -- surely their staffs can’t have been that misinformed) of these changes along with some basic facts about the automotive industry. Even if you ignore all the factual errors, the fact that the Senators which are pushing hardest for a domestic bankruptcy represent states which enjoy the presence of foreign auto plants and thus might benefit from such a bankruptcy lessens the validity of their arguments. Already, the argument that there is something inherently wrong with domestic automakers if they need to ask for government aid has been blown apart by the fact that even Toyota is doing the same thing. By the way, I should mention that those same foreign automakers have been quietly telling these Congressmen to tone down their rhetoric about the evils of government bailouts and the benefits of bankruptcy. A bankruptcy at GM would wipe out the already strained supplier base, which also supplies parts to the foreign automakers. Shutting down foreign owned auto plants in the south would not be particularly good for the people down there either.
Of course the real question is “What is in the best interests of the country?” Which will cost the country more? Bankruptcy or financial aid? And this is a question everyone must answer. If you don’t think a GM bankruptcy is going to affect you, you are kidding yourself. The domino effect of from a GM bankruptcy will take out a huge section of the economy, including areas that may not be apparent to people working in non-automotive areas. I’m not an economist, but it wouldn’t surprise me if such a collapse would prolong the current financial crisis by another 6 months, and that may be optomistic. Let’s make sure we get this right. Playing politics with this decision has the potential to damage the country even further.
OK, I’ll get down off the soapbox now.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Colorful Chemistry
I suspect that one of the reasons I chose Inorganic chemistry as my major was due to the colorful chemistry of transition metal complexes. Organic compounds, at least the ones I saw during my first several years in college, were almost always white. And in those instances where some color was present, usually a rather boring pale yellow or brown, it was often due to the presence of impurities.
Unfortunately, the electronic transitions responsible for most of the transition metal colors are d-d transitions, which are generally forbidden under the rules of quantum mechanics, so it often requires fairly concentrated solutions to generate rich colors. There are the occasional exceptions – e.g. MnO4-, whose color is due to a quantum mechanically allowed electronic charge transition (the electron jumps from a metal orbital to an oxygen orbital) -- but generally, the extinction coefficients of most inorganic molecules are low.
So it’s rather ironic that a majority of the most deeply colored compounds are organic molecules. No forbidden electronic transitions here, just conjugated systems that can be tailored to absorb just about any wavelength of light in the visible and UV spectrum. This property has led to their use as dyes for over 4000 years. A list of the early dyes would include:
Alizarin – produced by the madder root
Carmine - obtained from the bodies of cochineal insects
Indigo – obtained from the indigo plant
Tyrian Purple – a brominated version of indigo, obtained from the Murex (a type of shellfish) in minute amounts, so quite expensive. Only affordable to the uber-wealthy, it eventually became seen as a symbol of royalty (thus the saying “born to the purple”). In Roman times, it was a capital offense to wear it if you were not a noble. Exposure of the dye to alkali turns it crimson, producing the color worn by Cardinals in the Catholic church.
Starting in the 1800s, many of these natural dyes were replaced with aniline based compounds produced from coal tar. Some of these are considered safe enough to eat, which is why Blue No. 2 (indigotine) is found both in your blue jeans and in your blue M&Ms. Not all of today’s dyes are synthetic. Carmine, which is still obtained from insects, is still used to impart a reddish color to some foods in the US, which is creating a bit of an uproar. Not surprisingly, the food industry is not enthused about telling consumers that some of their products are made from bugs.
The blue food coloring referred to as Brilliant Blue FCF (or Blue No. 1) has a noticeable side effect of which most parents are aware. Green poop. I remember the first time my six month old son presented me with such a gift. Unfortunately, he was suffering from some unknown intestinal disorder at the time which already had us a little worried. The only reason I didn’t immediately panic was that the bright Kelly green color was so artificial looking that it was hard to believe it was physiological in origin. Apparently purple goldfish crackers have Blue No. 1 in them.
Unfortunately, the electronic transitions responsible for most of the transition metal colors are d-d transitions, which are generally forbidden under the rules of quantum mechanics, so it often requires fairly concentrated solutions to generate rich colors. There are the occasional exceptions – e.g. MnO4-, whose color is due to a quantum mechanically allowed electronic charge transition (the electron jumps from a metal orbital to an oxygen orbital) -- but generally, the extinction coefficients of most inorganic molecules are low.
So it’s rather ironic that a majority of the most deeply colored compounds are organic molecules. No forbidden electronic transitions here, just conjugated systems that can be tailored to absorb just about any wavelength of light in the visible and UV spectrum. This property has led to their use as dyes for over 4000 years. A list of the early dyes would include:
Alizarin – produced by the madder root
Carmine - obtained from the bodies of cochineal insects
Indigo – obtained from the indigo plant
Tyrian Purple – a brominated version of indigo, obtained from the Murex (a type of shellfish) in minute amounts, so quite expensive. Only affordable to the uber-wealthy, it eventually became seen as a symbol of royalty (thus the saying “born to the purple”). In Roman times, it was a capital offense to wear it if you were not a noble. Exposure of the dye to alkali turns it crimson, producing the color worn by Cardinals in the Catholic church.
Starting in the 1800s, many of these natural dyes were replaced with aniline based compounds produced from coal tar. Some of these are considered safe enough to eat, which is why Blue No. 2 (indigotine) is found both in your blue jeans and in your blue M&Ms. Not all of today’s dyes are synthetic. Carmine, which is still obtained from insects, is still used to impart a reddish color to some foods in the US, which is creating a bit of an uproar. Not surprisingly, the food industry is not enthused about telling consumers that some of their products are made from bugs.
The blue food coloring referred to as Brilliant Blue FCF (or Blue No. 1) has a noticeable side effect of which most parents are aware. Green poop. I remember the first time my six month old son presented me with such a gift. Unfortunately, he was suffering from some unknown intestinal disorder at the time which already had us a little worried. The only reason I didn’t immediately panic was that the bright Kelly green color was so artificial looking that it was hard to believe it was physiological in origin. Apparently purple goldfish crackers have Blue No. 1 in them.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Clustered Water Chemistry
As an aqueous inorganic chemist by training (at least in grad school, although my horizons have expanded quite a bit due to my time in industry), I’ve spent a fair amount of time investigating and understanding the role of water in chemical reactions. When working with transition metals, this usually translates into accounting for aqueous coordination complexes, pH, and solvent effects. However, after perusing the Net these last few years, I now realize I have been woefully ignorant concerning the chemistry of water. I knew water tends to form loose clusters of molecules (due to hydrogen bonding), which accounts for some of its unusual properties, but I wasn’t aware of the immense importance of these clusters to its chemistry.
I am particularly upset that neither my professors nor my chemistry textbooks felt it necessary to cover this important aspect of aqueous chemistry. As a result, I’ve been forced to learn about clustered water on my own by visiting some rather arcane web sites – web sites that for some reason appear to contain a high percentage of viruses, bots, and other spyware. To make it even worse, most of the my information comes from sites which make a profit by selling devices or elixirs based on the unique properties of these water clusters, which means that the scientific basis for these properties are often poorly explained. (These people really need some spell checkers!)
Here is what I’ve been able to deduce from my research:
1. There is a form of clustered water which has very unusual properties. Scientists are generally unaware of this form of water since it disappeared from the earth in the distant past. However, it can still be found naturally in very old glaciers and newborn babies. Yes, we are born with our own supply of the stuff, but we lose it as we age (being replaced by ordinary water) and this leads to disease and the overall decay of our bodies. I can only assume the major pharmaceutical companies are working feverously on this in secret as I type.
2. Clustered water has a different surface tension than normal water. Unfortunately, there is disagreement as to whether it’s higher or lower. Regardless, this difference in surface tension allows it to permeate cell membranes more readily which keeps our cells more hydrated… and healthy… and happy.
3. Clustered water retains a memory of the impurities which were trapped inside these clusters in the past. Although this sounds suspiciously like the failed theory of "water memory" proposed by Jacques Benveniste, this time it’s for real! Unfortunately, this has led to some confusion amongst the makers of clustered water products. Some marketers want you to ingest water clusters which have been exposed to very dilute solutions of vitamins to help replenish the body. Others feel it is the ingestion of clustered water which has been previously exposed to toxins which causes all our problems. These people want to sell you devices for purging your body of bad clusters. The scientific world is still debating this one.
4. Clustered water can impart its properties to ordinary water. So it’s cheaper to buy a concentrated bottle of clustered water and dilute it with ordinary tap water.
5. Changing the bond angle within the water molecules results in a burst of light which affects your DNA. Apparently, this turns out to be a good thing. I’m not quite sure I understand everything that was explained on the web site, but I believe changing the bond angle can be done using sound vibrations. Gregorian chants are particularly good. In any case, we should all be aware of the possible effects of MP3 players on our lab experiments.
6. Clustered water is not to be confused with the fictional compound Ice-Nine, mentioned in Kurt Vonnegut’s book, Cat’s Cradle. Clustered water is real.
If you wish to read more about this fascinating area, visit the Water Cluster Quackery page.
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Woohoo! We now have vending machines at work! Our work site now is relevant!
I am particularly upset that neither my professors nor my chemistry textbooks felt it necessary to cover this important aspect of aqueous chemistry. As a result, I’ve been forced to learn about clustered water on my own by visiting some rather arcane web sites – web sites that for some reason appear to contain a high percentage of viruses, bots, and other spyware. To make it even worse, most of the my information comes from sites which make a profit by selling devices or elixirs based on the unique properties of these water clusters, which means that the scientific basis for these properties are often poorly explained. (These people really need some spell checkers!)
Here is what I’ve been able to deduce from my research:
1. There is a form of clustered water which has very unusual properties. Scientists are generally unaware of this form of water since it disappeared from the earth in the distant past. However, it can still be found naturally in very old glaciers and newborn babies. Yes, we are born with our own supply of the stuff, but we lose it as we age (being replaced by ordinary water) and this leads to disease and the overall decay of our bodies. I can only assume the major pharmaceutical companies are working feverously on this in secret as I type.
2. Clustered water has a different surface tension than normal water. Unfortunately, there is disagreement as to whether it’s higher or lower. Regardless, this difference in surface tension allows it to permeate cell membranes more readily which keeps our cells more hydrated… and healthy… and happy.
3. Clustered water retains a memory of the impurities which were trapped inside these clusters in the past. Although this sounds suspiciously like the failed theory of "water memory" proposed by Jacques Benveniste, this time it’s for real! Unfortunately, this has led to some confusion amongst the makers of clustered water products. Some marketers want you to ingest water clusters which have been exposed to very dilute solutions of vitamins to help replenish the body. Others feel it is the ingestion of clustered water which has been previously exposed to toxins which causes all our problems. These people want to sell you devices for purging your body of bad clusters. The scientific world is still debating this one.
4. Clustered water can impart its properties to ordinary water. So it’s cheaper to buy a concentrated bottle of clustered water and dilute it with ordinary tap water.
5. Changing the bond angle within the water molecules results in a burst of light which affects your DNA. Apparently, this turns out to be a good thing. I’m not quite sure I understand everything that was explained on the web site, but I believe changing the bond angle can be done using sound vibrations. Gregorian chants are particularly good. In any case, we should all be aware of the possible effects of MP3 players on our lab experiments.
6. Clustered water is not to be confused with the fictional compound Ice-Nine, mentioned in Kurt Vonnegut’s book, Cat’s Cradle. Clustered water is real.
If you wish to read more about this fascinating area, visit the Water Cluster Quackery page.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Woohoo! We now have vending machines at work! Our work site now is relevant!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Adatoms?
A few weeks ago, I attended a talk given by Professor John Yates at the local Michigan Catalysis Society meeting. John Yates (University of Virginia) is a well respected figure in the area of surface chemistry and catalysis. I hadn’t heard him speak before, but I was looking forward to it since, according to a friend of mine, John could make a talk on life insurance interesting. I was not disappointed. On a side note, he looks pretty damn good for someone in his 70's. His talk centered on self-assembled thiol complexes on gold surfaces. Interested parties might read the following paper: P. Maksymovych, D. C. Sorescu and J. T. Yates, Jr., “Gold-Adatom-Mediated Bonding in Self-Assembled Short-Chain Alkanethiolate Species on the Au(111) Surface,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 146103 (2006).
John spent a fair amount of time discussing gold “adatoms.” What are adatoms, you ask?
No. Not this guy.
An adatom is an “adsorbed atom” and is usually described as a single atom sitting on a crystal surface. Adatoms have been around for years, but I’d never heard of the term before, despite the fact that I’ve apparently been making them for years. Simply exposing Pt to a hydrogen molecule, for example, will lead to the formation of hydrogen adatoms on the Pt surface. Of course, many of us who work on catalyst development would not think of these as adatoms, since in our line of work, exposure to even tiny amounts of hydrogen would essentially cover the entire surface of the platinum with a layer of hydrogen atoms, which doesn’t really fit the adatom definition.
What I found interesting was that Au, Ag, and Cu have the ability to generate their own adatoms. Due to structural strains in the crystal packing of these metals, individual atoms tend to pop out of the bulk to form single atoms on the surface. Assuming I understand this correctly, these adatoms tend to appear in a regularly repeating two dimensional pattern across the surface. Molecules (such as thiols) can bind to these adatoms, creating a surface layer with unique chemical properties. (Note: It’s possible that exposure to these binding molecules actually helps cause the adatoms to appear on the surface in the first place, but I don’t know. Perhaps someone else can answer that question.) Interesting chemistry indeed.
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I see that I passed the one year anniversary of this blog back in January. It’s unfortunate that it occurred during a dry spell, but I’m happy the blog is still going. The percentage of blogs that last more than a year is fairly low, so I can’t complain.
John spent a fair amount of time discussing gold “adatoms.” What are adatoms, you ask?
No. Not this guy.An adatom is an “adsorbed atom” and is usually described as a single atom sitting on a crystal surface. Adatoms have been around for years, but I’d never heard of the term before, despite the fact that I’ve apparently been making them for years. Simply exposing Pt to a hydrogen molecule, for example, will lead to the formation of hydrogen adatoms on the Pt surface. Of course, many of us who work on catalyst development would not think of these as adatoms, since in our line of work, exposure to even tiny amounts of hydrogen would essentially cover the entire surface of the platinum with a layer of hydrogen atoms, which doesn’t really fit the adatom definition.
What I found interesting was that Au, Ag, and Cu have the ability to generate their own adatoms. Due to structural strains in the crystal packing of these metals, individual atoms tend to pop out of the bulk to form single atoms on the surface. Assuming I understand this correctly, these adatoms tend to appear in a regularly repeating two dimensional pattern across the surface. Molecules (such as thiols) can bind to these adatoms, creating a surface layer with unique chemical properties. (Note: It’s possible that exposure to these binding molecules actually helps cause the adatoms to appear on the surface in the first place, but I don’t know. Perhaps someone else can answer that question.) Interesting chemistry indeed.
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I see that I passed the one year anniversary of this blog back in January. It’s unfortunate that it occurred during a dry spell, but I’m happy the blog is still going. The percentage of blogs that last more than a year is fairly low, so I can’t complain.
Monday, February 16, 2009
First Week Back At Work
Well, I'm a week into my new job and things are beginning to settle down.
A little.
Even though I'm working for the same company as before, I'm working at a totally different location on a totally different project under a whole new set of rules and regulations. Although I know I'm working on fuel cells, my specific duties have yet to be fully determined. One of my initial assignments is to get the various testing facilities up and running, but I can see that I'm going to be needed in many different areas. The manager of the project has apparently decided to let me decide where I should be focusing my efforts. Hopefully I don't disappoint. I'm certainly not going to be bored. Here are the pros and cons so far:
Pros
--I'm getting paid. Yeah!!!!!!!! (Come on, what did you expect?)
--The project looks like fun. There's a lot of interesting chemistry happening here.
--Sorry, that's all I've got.
Cons
--Long commute. It's a 55 minute commute each way now, but it could be worse, so I won't complain too much. Some of my coworkers have even longer commutes. Such is your fate when you work for a company in the midst of a significant downsizing.
--No phone number, computer logon ID, email address, or computer! I have to request these things and the response time is yet to be determined. I'm currently borrowing a computer for making notes and browsing the net, but someone else has to log me in on their account every day for this to work. The lack of ID means I can't be the first person to arrive in the morning or the last person out at night, else I'll be setting off alarms.
--There are no vending machines here! Not even for soda! Not enough people here to support them I suppose, but I was under the impression that OSHA regulations required their presence at all work facilities. ;)
I previously wrote that I needed more structure in my life in order to keep up with this blog. Beware of what you wish for! I definitely have structure in my life now, but at the expense of free time. We'll see how this translates into blog entries.
A little.
Even though I'm working for the same company as before, I'm working at a totally different location on a totally different project under a whole new set of rules and regulations. Although I know I'm working on fuel cells, my specific duties have yet to be fully determined. One of my initial assignments is to get the various testing facilities up and running, but I can see that I'm going to be needed in many different areas. The manager of the project has apparently decided to let me decide where I should be focusing my efforts. Hopefully I don't disappoint. I'm certainly not going to be bored. Here are the pros and cons so far:
Pros
--I'm getting paid. Yeah!!!!!!!! (Come on, what did you expect?)
--The project looks like fun. There's a lot of interesting chemistry happening here.
--Sorry, that's all I've got.
Cons
--Long commute. It's a 55 minute commute each way now, but it could be worse, so I won't complain too much. Some of my coworkers have even longer commutes. Such is your fate when you work for a company in the midst of a significant downsizing.
--No phone number, computer logon ID, email address, or computer! I have to request these things and the response time is yet to be determined. I'm currently borrowing a computer for making notes and browsing the net, but someone else has to log me in on their account every day for this to work. The lack of ID means I can't be the first person to arrive in the morning or the last person out at night, else I'll be setting off alarms.
--There are no vending machines here! Not even for soda! Not enough people here to support them I suppose, but I was under the impression that OSHA regulations required their presence at all work facilities. ;)
I previously wrote that I needed more structure in my life in order to keep up with this blog. Beware of what you wish for! I definitely have structure in my life now, but at the expense of free time. We'll see how this translates into blog entries.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Photo Chemistry
A few weeks ago, my wife began taking a photography class at a local college. Although her real interest is in the area of digital photography, course prerequisites require her to take an initial course using real film. One of the things the course is designed to teach is how to develop your own film, so she's getting some hands-on experience in some basic chemistry. She may never use any of this knowledge, but she does seem to be enjoying the class.
In any case, she's reached the section of the textbook which covers the chemical aspects of film development and she's already asked me for help on her homework questions. Unfortunately, the questions turned out to be a little bit more difficult than I expected. This was due in part to the fact that the chemistry questions were written by someone who obviously was not a chemist, which always adds to the degree of difficulty. This meant I spent a lot of time trying to determine exactly what the instructor "thought" he was asking and what type of answer he was hoping for. (Now I don't mean to suggest that the non-chemist is always to blame in situations like this. Sometimes it's the chemist who is the problem. I recall trying to answer a Trivial Pursuit question many years ago which read "Glass is made out of what?" The answer, of course, was "sand", but all I could think of were answers like "silica" or other more esoteric chemical terms, despite being given the hint not to think like a chemist.)
The other difficulty arose when I came to the realization that I knew less about the chemistry of film than I thought. I knew that silver halide salts (the main ingredient in film) are light sensitive, decomposing to black silver metal upon exposure to light. After all, that's why silver salts are always shipped in dark brown bottles. And I had known about the role of sodium thiosulfate in the fixer (dissolving and removing unreacted silver halide) since I was a freshman. But what did the developer do? And what is a stop bath?
Apparently, the initial exposure to light only reduces a small fraction of the silver halide in the film -- not nearly enough to make a negative. The developer operates by magnifying the amount of silver reduced to the metallic state. The developer contains organic compounds (such as hydroquinone or p-aminophenol) which are good at reducing silver halides in the film, but only when catalyzed by the presence of small metallic silver clusters (such as Ag4o) which were formed during the initial exposure to light. The grain size of the silver halide particles are an important determiner of the amount of silver reduced by the developer, and this fact is used to produce films with different speeds.
And the stop bath? It's basically a solution of acid which lowers the pH of the developer and essentially halts the further reduction of silver halide.
At least my wife is experiencing the joys of using graduated cylinders in her lab. Maybe I'll make a chemist out of her yet!
In any case, she's reached the section of the textbook which covers the chemical aspects of film development and she's already asked me for help on her homework questions. Unfortunately, the questions turned out to be a little bit more difficult than I expected. This was due in part to the fact that the chemistry questions were written by someone who obviously was not a chemist, which always adds to the degree of difficulty. This meant I spent a lot of time trying to determine exactly what the instructor "thought" he was asking and what type of answer he was hoping for. (Now I don't mean to suggest that the non-chemist is always to blame in situations like this. Sometimes it's the chemist who is the problem. I recall trying to answer a Trivial Pursuit question many years ago which read "Glass is made out of what?" The answer, of course, was "sand", but all I could think of were answers like "silica" or other more esoteric chemical terms, despite being given the hint not to think like a chemist.)
The other difficulty arose when I came to the realization that I knew less about the chemistry of film than I thought. I knew that silver halide salts (the main ingredient in film) are light sensitive, decomposing to black silver metal upon exposure to light. After all, that's why silver salts are always shipped in dark brown bottles. And I had known about the role of sodium thiosulfate in the fixer (dissolving and removing unreacted silver halide) since I was a freshman. But what did the developer do? And what is a stop bath?
Apparently, the initial exposure to light only reduces a small fraction of the silver halide in the film -- not nearly enough to make a negative. The developer operates by magnifying the amount of silver reduced to the metallic state. The developer contains organic compounds (such as hydroquinone or p-aminophenol) which are good at reducing silver halides in the film, but only when catalyzed by the presence of small metallic silver clusters (such as Ag4o) which were formed during the initial exposure to light. The grain size of the silver halide particles are an important determiner of the amount of silver reduced by the developer, and this fact is used to produce films with different speeds.
And the stop bath? It's basically a solution of acid which lowers the pH of the developer and essentially halts the further reduction of silver halide.
At least my wife is experiencing the joys of using graduated cylinders in her lab. Maybe I'll make a chemist out of her yet!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Why Free Time and Blogs Do Not Mix
The biggest reason why I haven't been updating my blog lately (other than laziness) is apparently due to having too much free time. Strange as it may seem, I am finding I require a certain minimum level of structure in my life in order to post anything on this blog. Back when I lived in the land of employment, there was structure. Searching the net for interesting science articles at work (during lunch, of course) was a regular routine and this process generated most of the ideas about which I posted. When I'm home all day, I never get around to performing this ritual until late at night, and then I feel obliged to work on my resume, or rearranging my office, or any of the other tasks I managed to avoid during the day.
Well it looks like that practice is about to stop.
Unless something unforeseen occurs, I should be entering the land of the employed in about a week. Now before you all start cheering too loudly, I should point out this job is not a permanent position. It's a contract position, with a length of one year, and the salary is significantly less than my prior job. And it's not going to involve a lot of interesting research on my part either, at least not for a while. I'll be developing computer automated test reactors for the evaluation of fuel cells. Not what I'd call an ideal position, but it will help keep us financially secure until I do locate a more favorable, permanent position. To say the national job market for inorganic chemists has fallen off a cliff is an understatement. The trick will be to ride it out for a couple of years until the job market opens up.
The funny thing is -- I am going to be working for the same company I was laid off from two months ago. I was only able to pull this off because:
1. it's a contract position, which means they can cut me loose at any time, and considering the precarious state of the company, that time could be measured in months or weeks.
2. it's at a different facility, which unfortunately means a 50-60 minute commute each way.
3. it involves a product area in which they are very excited. And the fact that this project is partially funded by the government actually allowed them to hire someone.
Anyway, I hope to be spending lunch breaks posting in a more regular fashion soon.
Well it looks like that practice is about to stop.
Unless something unforeseen occurs, I should be entering the land of the employed in about a week. Now before you all start cheering too loudly, I should point out this job is not a permanent position. It's a contract position, with a length of one year, and the salary is significantly less than my prior job. And it's not going to involve a lot of interesting research on my part either, at least not for a while. I'll be developing computer automated test reactors for the evaluation of fuel cells. Not what I'd call an ideal position, but it will help keep us financially secure until I do locate a more favorable, permanent position. To say the national job market for inorganic chemists has fallen off a cliff is an understatement. The trick will be to ride it out for a couple of years until the job market opens up.
The funny thing is -- I am going to be working for the same company I was laid off from two months ago. I was only able to pull this off because:
1. it's a contract position, which means they can cut me loose at any time, and considering the precarious state of the company, that time could be measured in months or weeks.
2. it's at a different facility, which unfortunately means a 50-60 minute commute each way.
3. it involves a product area in which they are very excited. And the fact that this project is partially funded by the government actually allowed them to hire someone.
Anyway, I hope to be spending lunch breaks posting in a more regular fashion soon.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
More Bad News
I just learned that there are going to be more layoffs at my former company. Unfortunately, one of the guys I worked closely with was tapped this time. All the competent researchers from that particular division are now basically gone. This does not bode well for the future of that division or the company overall.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Hydrate Chemistry
As I've previously indicated on this blog, I am primarily an AQUEOUS inorganic chemist. As such, I've prepared a wide variety of aquated metal complexes over the years, but I've never paid much attention to solid hydrate chemistry. And that's a shame, since there is a lot of good chemistry in that area, some of which I'm dealing with right now.
A few months ago, we decorated our ceilings with crown molding. Unfortunately, the original builders of our house placed the water pipes too close to the ceiling, which meant that two months after the crown molding was added, the FOUR nails which had punctured the pipes rusted and caused the pipes to leak. The resulting repair left a hole in the ceiling which was my job to fix. The material of choice for this type of repair is drywall (sometimes called sheetrock). Drywall is prepared by mixing CaSO4 · 1/2H2O with water to form CaSO4 · 2H2O, a hydrate with enough strength to be used to construct walls. Considering the fact that the added water forms no bonds other than hydrogen bonds, it's a little surprising that the resulting hydrate is so stable.
Of course, the strength of CaSO4 · 2H2O is nothing compared to that of another well-known hydrate. Cement begins as a mixture of CaO and SiO2 in various proportions, which is then reacted with water to form a calcium silicate hydrate.
2 Ca3SiO5 + 7 H2O —> 3 CaO · 2 SiO2 · 4 H2O +3 Ca(OH)2
Actually there is an entire series of hydration reactions which occur during the hardening of cement, with reaction times ranging from hours to weeks. Again, the strength generated by the formation of a hydrate is simply amazing.
Another hydrate with interesting chemistry is methane hydrate. Containing 5-6 molecules of water for every molecule of methane, this material can be found in huge quantities along the ocean floor. Wiki link here. It has been described as both a huge, untapped energy reserve and a major source of greenhouse gas. The latter description has become more significant as the temperature of the oceans continues to rise, since methane hydrate is only stable at low temperatures. It's also been used to explain the disappearance of ships in the Bermuda Triangle. What more could you ask from a simple compound?
Anyway, the ceiling is fixed.
A few months ago, we decorated our ceilings with crown molding. Unfortunately, the original builders of our house placed the water pipes too close to the ceiling, which meant that two months after the crown molding was added, the FOUR nails which had punctured the pipes rusted and caused the pipes to leak. The resulting repair left a hole in the ceiling which was my job to fix. The material of choice for this type of repair is drywall (sometimes called sheetrock). Drywall is prepared by mixing CaSO4 · 1/2H2O with water to form CaSO4 · 2H2O, a hydrate with enough strength to be used to construct walls. Considering the fact that the added water forms no bonds other than hydrogen bonds, it's a little surprising that the resulting hydrate is so stable.
Of course, the strength of CaSO4 · 2H2O is nothing compared to that of another well-known hydrate. Cement begins as a mixture of CaO and SiO2 in various proportions, which is then reacted with water to form a calcium silicate hydrate.
2 Ca3SiO5 + 7 H2O —> 3 CaO · 2 SiO2 · 4 H2O +3 Ca(OH)2
Actually there is an entire series of hydration reactions which occur during the hardening of cement, with reaction times ranging from hours to weeks. Again, the strength generated by the formation of a hydrate is simply amazing.
Another hydrate with interesting chemistry is methane hydrate. Containing 5-6 molecules of water for every molecule of methane, this material can be found in huge quantities along the ocean floor. Wiki link here. It has been described as both a huge, untapped energy reserve and a major source of greenhouse gas. The latter description has become more significant as the temperature of the oceans continues to rise, since methane hydrate is only stable at low temperatures. It's also been used to explain the disappearance of ships in the Bermuda Triangle. What more could you ask from a simple compound?
Anyway, the ceiling is fixed.
Monday, January 12, 2009
The Power of TV
One of the advantages of a “career transition” is that it allows one to watch alarmingly high amounts of TV during the day (while doing Internet job searches, of course). And while I appreciate having been granted this boon, it’s probably not worth the I.Q. points I’ve had to give up for the privilege. Lately, my wife has developed the habit of watching HGTV (Home & Garden TV) whenever she finds nothing else worth watching. Unfortunately, this means we have HGTV on at least 6 hours a day.
(Yes, we are one of those families where the TV is on almost continously all day, even if no one is watching. Frankly, the silence generated by turning it off scares the hell out of me.)
Long time readers know that I’m into gardening (garden link here), so I used to enjoy HGTV, but lately they’ve been ignoring the garden aspect and concentrating solely on houses. Remodeling houses, appraising houses, selling houses, buying houses, swapping houses -- it doesn’t take a genius to realize that all these shows are going to look the same. I realize the housing crisis has led to a renewed interest in how to sell your house -- or how to remodel it if you can’t -- but you can only remodel a kitchen so many ways. You can only gasp at poorly decorated homes so many times. You can only laugh at a homeowner’s first experience with a hammer so many times. And that, basically, is a summation of about 80% of the shows. The other 20% involves laughing at the tacky artistic remodeling touches added by the show’s designers, which would never see the light of day if the owners were actually paying for them.
However, what really drive me crazy are the “What is my house worth?” shows. First of all, either these shows were taped 2 years ago or else the realtors who supposedly “appraise” the houses are incompetent fools, or liars, or incompetently foolish liars. In almost every case, the “supposed” appreciations of these houses are outrageously high. It’s not uncommon for an owner to have purchased a house 3 years ago for $300k, added $100k in upgrades, and then being told it’s now worth $800k. Even in the housing boom, that would have been remarkable. But these days? Who are they kidding? Obviously there are certain locations within in the United States where housing prices are climbing (at least, so far), but unless these shows are only filming in those specific areas, there is no way these prices are real.
What really appalls me though, is the reason for these appraisals. When the owners are asked the reason behind the appraisal, the most common answer is that they are considering a major renovation and want to know if the house has appreciated enough to pay for that upgrade. Morons! Either you have the money or you don’t! Using a “supposed” increase in the price of your house to pay for a renovation is like pulling money out of your savings account and thinking you just made a profit. Don’t these people realize that it was this kind of “logic” that got us into the housing crisis in the first place. Basing financial decisions on artificially inflated values of real estate is stupid.
Seriously, some of these people need to be kept out of the gene pool!
I feel better now.
Tomorrow -- Real Science: Nostradamus on the History Channel!
(Yes, we are one of those families where the TV is on almost continously all day, even if no one is watching. Frankly, the silence generated by turning it off scares the hell out of me.)
Long time readers know that I’m into gardening (garden link here), so I used to enjoy HGTV, but lately they’ve been ignoring the garden aspect and concentrating solely on houses. Remodeling houses, appraising houses, selling houses, buying houses, swapping houses -- it doesn’t take a genius to realize that all these shows are going to look the same. I realize the housing crisis has led to a renewed interest in how to sell your house -- or how to remodel it if you can’t -- but you can only remodel a kitchen so many ways. You can only gasp at poorly decorated homes so many times. You can only laugh at a homeowner’s first experience with a hammer so many times. And that, basically, is a summation of about 80% of the shows. The other 20% involves laughing at the tacky artistic remodeling touches added by the show’s designers, which would never see the light of day if the owners were actually paying for them.
However, what really drive me crazy are the “What is my house worth?” shows. First of all, either these shows were taped 2 years ago or else the realtors who supposedly “appraise” the houses are incompetent fools, or liars, or incompetently foolish liars. In almost every case, the “supposed” appreciations of these houses are outrageously high. It’s not uncommon for an owner to have purchased a house 3 years ago for $300k, added $100k in upgrades, and then being told it’s now worth $800k. Even in the housing boom, that would have been remarkable. But these days? Who are they kidding? Obviously there are certain locations within in the United States where housing prices are climbing (at least, so far), but unless these shows are only filming in those specific areas, there is no way these prices are real.
What really appalls me though, is the reason for these appraisals. When the owners are asked the reason behind the appraisal, the most common answer is that they are considering a major renovation and want to know if the house has appreciated enough to pay for that upgrade. Morons! Either you have the money or you don’t! Using a “supposed” increase in the price of your house to pay for a renovation is like pulling money out of your savings account and thinking you just made a profit. Don’t these people realize that it was this kind of “logic” that got us into the housing crisis in the first place. Basing financial decisions on artificially inflated values of real estate is stupid.
Seriously, some of these people need to be kept out of the gene pool!
I feel better now.
Tomorrow -- Real Science: Nostradamus on the History Channel!
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Home Grown Titanium
Although my current lack of posting might not indicate it, I've actually come across quite a few interesting articles lately. Unfortunately, they all involve nanochemistry, and since I've already talked too much about nanochemistry recently, I'm imposing a moratorium on that subject for awhile. Fortunately, I do have something else to talk about.
The Goldschmidt reaction.
Not familiar with the Goldschmidt reaction? Perhaps you have heard of it referred to as "the thermite reaction."
Surely everyone who has ever taken a freshman chemistry course has read or heard about the thermite reaction. Most of you have probably seen it in action. The pyrotechnics are impressive and most freshman chemistry lecturers simply cannot resist demonstrating it in front of a class. In its most common incarnation, aluminum and Fe2O3 (or Fe3O4) powders are mixed and ignited. The aluminum is converted to Al2O3 while the iron oxide is reduced to the metallic state. Significant quantities of heat are released, and if the experiment is set up correctly, molten iron will drip out of the bottom of the reaction vessel. Although iron oxide is the material most associated with the thermite reaction, copper and manganese oxides can also be used.
In a continuation of "the type of experiments I'd like to try at home when my wife is away" category, I recently came across a method for generating titanium metal in your garage using TiO2 and the thermite reaction. A full description of the technique as well as a video of the pyrotechnics are included. Metallic titanium was actually recovered, which is amazing since titanium tends to oxidize in air at temperatures near its melting point. In order to generate the temperatures necessary to melt the titanium, CaSO4 was added to generate additional heat. CaSO4 reacts with aluminum in its own version of the thermite reaction to form CaS. A more detailed description of the process involved can be found here.
This would have been an awesome experiment for alchemists to have performed back in the day. Simple, yet impressive. Perhaps the substitution of iron oxide with some form of gold oxide (or other suitable gold compound) might have resulted in the appearance of molten gold, always a good way to impress the wealthy patrons upon whom the alchemists depended. Unfortunately, although aluminum salts were known to the alchemists as far back as ancient Greece, aluminum metal was not produced until the 1800's. And it's the chemical energy stored in the metal which drives the whole reaction.
The Goldschmidt reaction.
Not familiar with the Goldschmidt reaction? Perhaps you have heard of it referred to as "the thermite reaction."
Surely everyone who has ever taken a freshman chemistry course has read or heard about the thermite reaction. Most of you have probably seen it in action. The pyrotechnics are impressive and most freshman chemistry lecturers simply cannot resist demonstrating it in front of a class. In its most common incarnation, aluminum and Fe2O3 (or Fe3O4) powders are mixed and ignited. The aluminum is converted to Al2O3 while the iron oxide is reduced to the metallic state. Significant quantities of heat are released, and if the experiment is set up correctly, molten iron will drip out of the bottom of the reaction vessel. Although iron oxide is the material most associated with the thermite reaction, copper and manganese oxides can also be used.
In a continuation of "the type of experiments I'd like to try at home when my wife is away" category, I recently came across a method for generating titanium metal in your garage using TiO2 and the thermite reaction. A full description of the technique as well as a video of the pyrotechnics are included. Metallic titanium was actually recovered, which is amazing since titanium tends to oxidize in air at temperatures near its melting point. In order to generate the temperatures necessary to melt the titanium, CaSO4 was added to generate additional heat. CaSO4 reacts with aluminum in its own version of the thermite reaction to form CaS. A more detailed description of the process involved can be found here.
This would have been an awesome experiment for alchemists to have performed back in the day. Simple, yet impressive. Perhaps the substitution of iron oxide with some form of gold oxide (or other suitable gold compound) might have resulted in the appearance of molten gold, always a good way to impress the wealthy patrons upon whom the alchemists depended. Unfortunately, although aluminum salts were known to the alchemists as far back as ancient Greece, aluminum metal was not produced until the 1800's. And it's the chemical energy stored in the metal which drives the whole reaction.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
More Nanoparticle Bondage
In a previous entry, I mentioned a technique whereby gold nanoparticles could be attached to the exterior of fungal cells to form unusual hybrid materials. Once the gold scaffolding was complete, the fungi could be removed (digested), leaving behind 3 dimensional gold structures. This started me thinking that there might be a rich field of exploration here, finding simple ways of attaching metal nanoparticles like gold to new substrates in the hopes of creating new 3-dimensional structures with unusual properties. Even better, many of these techniques would be based on aqueous chemistry, which make them especially appealing (to me at least).
Of course, within a week or two of that article, two more articles appeared which demonstrated that other research groups are already way ahead of me in this area.
In the first paper, J. P. Hinestroza and coauthors at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) and the University of California, Davis, described a method of applying silver nanoparticles to porous nylon fibers, resulting in fibers with strong antibacterial properties. By using AQUEOUS chemistry techniques (pH control, isoelectric points, citrate stabilization, etc.), they found they could control the resulting properties of the final material. When you consider the fact that the original gold and silver nanoparticles can be easily produced by reducing aqueous solutions of the metal salts, you begin to realize just how much fun this type of project could be for an aqueous inorganic chemist like myself.
In the second paper, Y. Yin and co-workers at the University of California, Riverside, described the synthesis of gold nanoparticle catalysts supported on silica-encapsulated Fe3O4 spheres and protected by a porous silica shell. The purpose of the silica shell was to fix the gold nanoparticles in place for catalysis. Apparently the resulting material were found to be a good catalyst for the liquid-phase reduction of 4-nitrophenol with NaBH4. Interestingly, the purpose of placing the catalyst onto Fe3O4 cores was to give the researchers a convenient way of separating the catalyst from the reaction mixture. Nice.
I'm predicting a whole slew of papers are going to start appearing which involve placing gold and silver nanoparticles on every material imaginable.
Of course, maybe that's already happened and I just haven't noticed yet.
Ah yes..., it feels good to be blogging again.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas
I naively thought all the extra time I would have available to me during my career transition would translate into my having more time to devote to this blog. I actually do have extra time, despite all the inevitable timesinks (job search, buying presents, rearranging my office at home, etc.). However, I've also discovered that it's a lot harder for me to update this blog if I am not following a regular schedule throughout the day. So I ask you to bear with me as I begin to develop a regular routine.
I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas today.
I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas today.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Another Use for Copper
I've just returned from a 5 day visit with my parents in Missouri (which partly explains my recent lack of postings). It was great to visit, but it's always good to come back home again. Unfortunately, "home" is 20 degrees colder, my wife's computer had stopped working, and everyone in the house has some sort of vicious stomach virus. I briefly considered going to a motel, but my wife would have killed me.
Really.
So I spent Monday passing out medicines, cleaning up various messes, mostly eating by myself, and fixing the computer. The computer's working now, which is more than I can say for the rest of the family. I've already resigned myself to the inevitability of becoming a patient myself within the next couple of days. Perhaps I should invest in some copper bedsheets.
Why copper, you ask?
I have previously discussed the anti-bacterial properties of silver and gold. The list of purchasable items containing silver grows daily, and includes bandages, socks, towels, bedsheets, ointments, plastic food containers, soaps, and washing machines. Gold is not at that level of marketability yet, with gold-laced soap being the main use of its anti-bacterial properties. So it only makes sense that copper, the third element in the 1B group, also exhibits some of these same properties. In fact, in Chili, the biggest suppler of copper, copper fibers are being added to socks, towels, pillow cases and underwear. Copper sponge filters are being tested for their ability to purify water. I suspect it won't be long before this becomes a new marketing opportunity.
Despite their anti-fungal properties, these elements may also be used in conjunction with fungi. In a novel approach, fungi are being used as templates for stabilizing gold nanoparticles. Under the right conditions, fungi can absorb microscopic metal particles onto their surfaces, creating unusual clusters of nanoparticles, and resulting in metal-fungus hybrids which are able to catalyze certain reactions. It's certainly a novel way of doing bioinorganic chemistry.
Gotta go. I hear some rather vile noises emanating from my son's bedroom.
Really.
So I spent Monday passing out medicines, cleaning up various messes, mostly eating by myself, and fixing the computer. The computer's working now, which is more than I can say for the rest of the family. I've already resigned myself to the inevitability of becoming a patient myself within the next couple of days. Perhaps I should invest in some copper bedsheets.
Why copper, you ask?
I have previously discussed the anti-bacterial properties of silver and gold. The list of purchasable items containing silver grows daily, and includes bandages, socks, towels, bedsheets, ointments, plastic food containers, soaps, and washing machines. Gold is not at that level of marketability yet, with gold-laced soap being the main use of its anti-bacterial properties. So it only makes sense that copper, the third element in the 1B group, also exhibits some of these same properties. In fact, in Chili, the biggest suppler of copper, copper fibers are being added to socks, towels, pillow cases and underwear. Copper sponge filters are being tested for their ability to purify water. I suspect it won't be long before this becomes a new marketing opportunity.
Despite their anti-fungal properties, these elements may also be used in conjunction with fungi. In a novel approach, fungi are being used as templates for stabilizing gold nanoparticles. Under the right conditions, fungi can absorb microscopic metal particles onto their surfaces, creating unusual clusters of nanoparticles, and resulting in metal-fungus hybrids which are able to catalyze certain reactions. It's certainly a novel way of doing bioinorganic chemistry.
Gotta go. I hear some rather vile noises emanating from my son's bedroom.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Full Circle
Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving (assuming you live in the US). It was a good time to get together with friends and family.
My last day at work wasn’t as bad as I had expected. Pretty much everyone I knew had taken Wednesday off, so I had done all of my goodbyes the previous day. And since I’ve only been in the new building for about a month, it wasn’t like walking out was all that big a deal. Still, I’ll always remember my last day at work, just as I’ll always remember my first day of work, although for very different reasons. The story I’m about to tell is a lesson on what not to do when leaving school to start a new career….
It was Monday and my PhD still wasn’t finished, despite the fact that it was due in the graduate office on Friday. My thesis advisor had already left town on sabbatical, the movers were showing up in a couple of days, my timetable was inflexible (you’ll see why in a bit), and my fiancée had already made it abundantly clear that I would NOT be missing any of the agreed upon dates. (In the interest of truth, and the fact that my wife might actually read this post, I will point out that this fiancée is not my current wife). The thesis was pretty much done, but I was still fiddling around with the figures, since the thesis examiner was known to be a stickler for thesis formatting rules and if he declined to accept it on Friday, there would be hell to pay.
On Wednesday I discovered my thesis advisor was required to sign my cover page in two different locations. I had had him sign about 10 copies of the cover sheet before he left town (in case I needed backups), but hadn’t noticed the need for the second signature and now he was out of the country. I sweated bullets for a while before I remembered that, as the head of the chemical education program, he had a stamp with his signature on it stored away in his office. After talking with my advisor by phone, and after much practice, I managed to stamp his signature onto the appropriate spot without it obviously appearing to be a stamp. I was hoping the examiner wouldn’t notice.
On Thursday, the movers showed up and after explaining to them which items should be packed and which items should be left alone (I lived in a house with four other people), I went back to working on my thesis. At one point, I left to bring back some fast food, since everything seemed to be going smoothly with the movers. Of course, the instant I left, the movers started packing up my housemates stuff. I spent several hours on Thursday unpacking boxes and returning items which weren’t mine.
After pulling an all-nighter, the thesis was finished by Friday morning and I made all the necessary copies at Kinko’s. I showed up at the thesis examiner’s office with the copies at the designated time, 11:00 am, knowing that the office closed at noon, which meant there would be no time to fix any problems in the thesis should the examiner reject it. I had heard rumors about this guy, who was apparently fond of using rulers to ensure that all formatting rules were followed to the letter.
He accepted the thesis.
Relieved, I drove back to my house, packed up a few things, picked up one of my housemates (who was one of the bridesmaids), and immediately drove 4 hours to southern Illinois for my 5 o’clock wedding rehearsal. Yes, I was trying to squeeze a wedding into the middle of all this. I warned you this was not the way to do things.
Saturday was the wedding, and other than some discomfort in the morning due, I suspect, to a few drinks on Friday night, everything turned out well.
Sunday, picked up a U-Haul trailer and loaded my wife’s things into it.
Monday, left for Detroit, stopping at my house in Urbana to pick up more of my stuff. This made it a 3 day trip, which meant arriving in Detroit on Thursday. Unfortunately, I hadn’t had the time to make hotel reservations, assuming I could just find something on the fly. Not knowing Detroit very well, I ended up stopping at a motel whose reputation turned out to be rather suspect. This suspicion began when, during my check in at the office, some guy appeared, asking if the motel rented rooms by the hour. My suspicion was confirmed when the manager specifically had me park the car so that the doors of the U-Haul would be backed up against a tree, so that no one would be tempted to break open the lock. Needless to say, I must have checked the trailer 10 times over the course of the night.
Friday, I showed up for work on the absolute last day I could have arrived and still been granted vacation days the following year. Thus the rather strict timetable.
Saturday, left for the honeymoon.
That was one hell of a week!
My advice: Make sure to give yourself plenty of time for relaxation before reporting to your new job.
My last day at work wasn’t as bad as I had expected. Pretty much everyone I knew had taken Wednesday off, so I had done all of my goodbyes the previous day. And since I’ve only been in the new building for about a month, it wasn’t like walking out was all that big a deal. Still, I’ll always remember my last day at work, just as I’ll always remember my first day of work, although for very different reasons. The story I’m about to tell is a lesson on what not to do when leaving school to start a new career….
It was Monday and my PhD still wasn’t finished, despite the fact that it was due in the graduate office on Friday. My thesis advisor had already left town on sabbatical, the movers were showing up in a couple of days, my timetable was inflexible (you’ll see why in a bit), and my fiancée had already made it abundantly clear that I would NOT be missing any of the agreed upon dates. (In the interest of truth, and the fact that my wife might actually read this post, I will point out that this fiancée is not my current wife). The thesis was pretty much done, but I was still fiddling around with the figures, since the thesis examiner was known to be a stickler for thesis formatting rules and if he declined to accept it on Friday, there would be hell to pay.
On Wednesday I discovered my thesis advisor was required to sign my cover page in two different locations. I had had him sign about 10 copies of the cover sheet before he left town (in case I needed backups), but hadn’t noticed the need for the second signature and now he was out of the country. I sweated bullets for a while before I remembered that, as the head of the chemical education program, he had a stamp with his signature on it stored away in his office. After talking with my advisor by phone, and after much practice, I managed to stamp his signature onto the appropriate spot without it obviously appearing to be a stamp. I was hoping the examiner wouldn’t notice.
On Thursday, the movers showed up and after explaining to them which items should be packed and which items should be left alone (I lived in a house with four other people), I went back to working on my thesis. At one point, I left to bring back some fast food, since everything seemed to be going smoothly with the movers. Of course, the instant I left, the movers started packing up my housemates stuff. I spent several hours on Thursday unpacking boxes and returning items which weren’t mine.
After pulling an all-nighter, the thesis was finished by Friday morning and I made all the necessary copies at Kinko’s. I showed up at the thesis examiner’s office with the copies at the designated time, 11:00 am, knowing that the office closed at noon, which meant there would be no time to fix any problems in the thesis should the examiner reject it. I had heard rumors about this guy, who was apparently fond of using rulers to ensure that all formatting rules were followed to the letter.
He accepted the thesis.
Relieved, I drove back to my house, packed up a few things, picked up one of my housemates (who was one of the bridesmaids), and immediately drove 4 hours to southern Illinois for my 5 o’clock wedding rehearsal. Yes, I was trying to squeeze a wedding into the middle of all this. I warned you this was not the way to do things.
Saturday was the wedding, and other than some discomfort in the morning due, I suspect, to a few drinks on Friday night, everything turned out well.
Sunday, picked up a U-Haul trailer and loaded my wife’s things into it.
Monday, left for Detroit, stopping at my house in Urbana to pick up more of my stuff. This made it a 3 day trip, which meant arriving in Detroit on Thursday. Unfortunately, I hadn’t had the time to make hotel reservations, assuming I could just find something on the fly. Not knowing Detroit very well, I ended up stopping at a motel whose reputation turned out to be rather suspect. This suspicion began when, during my check in at the office, some guy appeared, asking if the motel rented rooms by the hour. My suspicion was confirmed when the manager specifically had me park the car so that the doors of the U-Haul would be backed up against a tree, so that no one would be tempted to break open the lock. Needless to say, I must have checked the trailer 10 times over the course of the night.
Friday, I showed up for work on the absolute last day I could have arrived and still been granted vacation days the following year. Thus the rather strict timetable.
Saturday, left for the honeymoon.
That was one hell of a week!
My advice: Make sure to give yourself plenty of time for relaxation before reporting to your new job.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Scary Times, Indeed
Tomorrow -- the 27th day of the 11th month of the 8th year of the 3rd millennium -- is my last day at work.
It's been one hell of a ride. Layoffs, buyouts, spinoffs, promotions, bankruptcy, blue sky research, product development projects. I've seen good times and bad times. And soon, hopefully, I'll be starting it all over again somewhere else.
One of the things you have to deal with in these situations is understanding why YOU had to be (one of) the sacrificial goats. I know WHY the company had to make deep cuts to survive (at least for a while longer), but as I look around at the people who made it past this round of cuts, I'm not sure why I was one of the chosen. For example, one of my coworkers, who was part of my group before a reorganization in January, is now coordinating projects with the national labs. Those were MY projects before the reorganization. Now I'm not trying to take anything away from her, but these projects simply are not in her area of expertise -- they're in mine. They were given to her simply because they needed to find something for her to do. Had I still been working those projects, I might have survived this rounds of cuts. In fact, I can think of several projects I was working on last year which turned out to be safe harbors. Unfortunately, it was my new project assignment which got axed, and me along with it. Apparently it was a matter of being involved on the wrong project at the wrong time. Ironically, the assignment which got me axed involved more chemistry than I had seen in years.
It's also easy to look around and see people just going through the motions, waiting for retirement to come, and wonder why they weren't approached. Part of that is due to having been in their respective business units for a long time. I was originally a part of the R&D labs, which was broken up about 2 years ago and distributed to various parts of the company. Of the 100 of us originally in the R&D labs, only about 5 of us are now left in the company. I had been warned this summer (by someone with connections inside the company) that we R&Ders had targets painted on our backs, and I guess they were right. Needless to say, the company is going to have a difficult time developing new products in the future.
Low level managers also appeared to be particularly immune to the layoffs, even if the product lines in which they were in charge were being dropped, leaving them with no real purpose in the company. Some of these managers are now spending all their time desperately trying to come up with project areas to justify their continued existence. It's not going to be easy.
All this may sound as though I'm somewhat bitter about the whole mess, and a week or two ago, I probably was. But I've come to realize that I was missing the point. As the company has continued to shrink due to a decline in the automotive sector (and unfortunately that target is still continuing to move downwards), it has been forced to shed many of the product areas in which an inorganic chemist (or any kind of chemist for that matter) would be useful. I look over what's left of the company and realize the company didn't really dump me. It's just that the company I joined many years ago no longer exists.
It's been one hell of a ride. Layoffs, buyouts, spinoffs, promotions, bankruptcy, blue sky research, product development projects. I've seen good times and bad times. And soon, hopefully, I'll be starting it all over again somewhere else.
One of the things you have to deal with in these situations is understanding why YOU had to be (one of) the sacrificial goats. I know WHY the company had to make deep cuts to survive (at least for a while longer), but as I look around at the people who made it past this round of cuts, I'm not sure why I was one of the chosen. For example, one of my coworkers, who was part of my group before a reorganization in January, is now coordinating projects with the national labs. Those were MY projects before the reorganization. Now I'm not trying to take anything away from her, but these projects simply are not in her area of expertise -- they're in mine. They were given to her simply because they needed to find something for her to do. Had I still been working those projects, I might have survived this rounds of cuts. In fact, I can think of several projects I was working on last year which turned out to be safe harbors. Unfortunately, it was my new project assignment which got axed, and me along with it. Apparently it was a matter of being involved on the wrong project at the wrong time. Ironically, the assignment which got me axed involved more chemistry than I had seen in years.
It's also easy to look around and see people just going through the motions, waiting for retirement to come, and wonder why they weren't approached. Part of that is due to having been in their respective business units for a long time. I was originally a part of the R&D labs, which was broken up about 2 years ago and distributed to various parts of the company. Of the 100 of us originally in the R&D labs, only about 5 of us are now left in the company. I had been warned this summer (by someone with connections inside the company) that we R&Ders had targets painted on our backs, and I guess they were right. Needless to say, the company is going to have a difficult time developing new products in the future.
Low level managers also appeared to be particularly immune to the layoffs, even if the product lines in which they were in charge were being dropped, leaving them with no real purpose in the company. Some of these managers are now spending all their time desperately trying to come up with project areas to justify their continued existence. It's not going to be easy.
All this may sound as though I'm somewhat bitter about the whole mess, and a week or two ago, I probably was. But I've come to realize that I was missing the point. As the company has continued to shrink due to a decline in the automotive sector (and unfortunately that target is still continuing to move downwards), it has been forced to shed many of the product areas in which an inorganic chemist (or any kind of chemist for that matter) would be useful. I look over what's left of the company and realize the company didn't really dump me. It's just that the company I joined many years ago no longer exists.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Miscellaneous Monday
A few miscellaneous items today.
A week or so ago, our secretary set up a departmental luncheon for the 5 of us in our group who are being "asked" to leave at the end of the month. This morning she came by to tell me that the going away luncheon has been cancelled for now. There were a variety of reasons, including other commitments by at least 2 of the "honorees", but the first reason she mentioned was "a lack of response/participation" from the rest of the department. Nice way to start a day. We'll probably just all get together informally at a bar somewhere instead.
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Ever wonder what might happen if The Matrix was running on Windows XP? Check out this video.
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I guess it's a sign of the financial crisis this country (and the rest of the world) is going through, but I've received 2 of those "help us give you millions of dollars" scam emails in the last week. Is it too much to ask these guys to do spellchecking? It's pretty hard to get really worked up over the prospect of getting free money when you keep hitting misspelled words. Here's an example....
Of course, I take this all back if these guys turn out to be legit.
A week or so ago, our secretary set up a departmental luncheon for the 5 of us in our group who are being "asked" to leave at the end of the month. This morning she came by to tell me that the going away luncheon has been cancelled for now. There were a variety of reasons, including other commitments by at least 2 of the "honorees", but the first reason she mentioned was "a lack of response/participation" from the rest of the department. Nice way to start a day. We'll probably just all get together informally at a bar somewhere instead.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Ever wonder what might happen if The Matrix was running on Windows XP? Check out this video.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I guess it's a sign of the financial crisis this country (and the rest of the world) is going through, but I've received 2 of those "help us give you millions of dollars" scam emails in the last week. Is it too much to ask these guys to do spellchecking? It's pretty hard to get really worked up over the prospect of getting free money when you keep hitting misspelled words. Here's an example....
Mr. ABDUL SAAZ a well known Philanthropist, before he died, he made a Will in our law firm stating that Five Million, Two Hundred Thousand British Pond-Stealing should be donated to Ten Philanthropist each.Of course, some of the misspellings might actually be Freudian Slips. Too funny.
Of course, I take this all back if these guys turn out to be legit.
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