• Question: how did you make a compound?

    Asked by katiecp to Sarah on 11 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Sarah Thomas

      Sarah Thomas answered on 11 Mar 2011:

      Hi Katie,

      I think you are asking about the label I made: 2,2,5,5-tetramethylpyrrolinoxyl….etc! If not, send me another question and I will answer it better!

      I’m going to call 2,2,5,5-tetramethylpyrrolinoxyl “TMPO” for short, ok?

      So the first thing I did was get a flask and I put TMPO in it with some acid. It was really hard to get it to
      dissolve so I put the flask in a Sonic Bath. A Sonic Bath is like a water bath, but the water vibrates really hard and the bath makes this really load screeching sound like “eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee”!!

      Then I took my flask out and I put it in a nice quiet cosy water bath and I added a catalyst and an activating agent. The activating agent makes the TMPO really reactive!

      So then I added Hydrazine. Hydrazine is really dangerous so I have to be REALLY careful. I added a few drops of Hydrazine into my flask with a pipette and then I have to throw the pipette and my gloves into a bleach bath to destroy any trace of the Hydrazine. When I put the pipette into the bleach, it foams and fizzes and that’s the Hydrazine being destroyed.

      The last thing I do is freeze-dry the flask. They freeze dry food for astronauts and coffee is also freeze dried. Basically it’s a way of removing all the water from something. But you do it by freezing the flask in liquid nitrogen at -196 degrees then you attach it onto a vacuum and it sucks all the water off as it slowly melts!

      Then all that is left in my flask is TMPO-hydrazide bonded together.

      Hope you are enjoying “I’m a scientist”! Send lots of difficult questions!!

      S

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