Hi this is Harry Zhang, I'm working at the Ballatore lab at UPenn and this is the 4th week that I've been working with Dr.Ballatore on making carboxylic isosteres (model compounds).
Towards the end of last week, I made another batch of protected CPD for the new LDA alkylation. Making the LDA was also a tedious process, and that was why Dr. Ballatore preferred using KHMDS. The making of LDA was mostly done by him and I was responsible for the alkylation. Since I've already done at least three alkylations, the process was familiar and I didn't make any mistakes so the color of the product was more "right", according to Dr. Ballatore. After working up the product and doing an HPLC, we still found the existence of the dimer. Dr. Ballatore collected samples for NMR to further analyze it while I made more methylated CPD.
I think after three weeks of practice, this week's lab work felt a lot more manageable and I actually had confidence that I wouldn't make a mistake like spilling dichloryl methane or making a cloud of silica powder. I felt that I was able to get a lot more done without the help of either Dr. Ballatore or the post-doc Bryant.
This was also the last week of the stay at Peddie. Over the weekend I moved to a hotel 2 blocks away from the lab to make life a lot easier (no more 3 hour commutes every day).
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