France-tastic

A post for the chemistry interested out there...

...I know you're out there...

Yesterday I made my first new compound, and today I have little orange crystals in my flask! Yay! It is an iridium complex with two phenylpyridine ligands, and a bipyridine ligand with an acid and a methyl group. Here is a picture (a photo would have been nice, since so far I have a bright yellow compound, a pale yellow compound, and a bright orange compound but alas, my camera is at home):

Basically, the point of my work is to make some new compounds of iridium and rhodium, try to resolve the enantiomers, and then study their interaction with DNA by NMR. The actual point of this, I'm not too sure about... There is a lot of talk about DNA marker agents and photoluminescence, but I can't really see the point, and it seems to me that our ultimate goal is simply to make some pretty compounds!

The lab itself is a bit old and shit here I have to say. Our labs at Sydney Uni were newer and better looked after. But c'est la vie, at least I am in Paris! Though I had a scary dream last night that I was actually in Brisbane! Basically I dreamt that before I came, I was going to Paris, but it wasn't specified as Paris, FRANCE, and it turned out there was a suburb of Brisbane called Paris, and that's where I went! Very strange, and not true, it semms.

I must also report an update on the food situation... Things are getting curiouser and curiouser at the University restaurant- Today we had bouillabaisse, served with fried banana. Like actual fried banana, with bouillabaisse on top, as though the banana was rice or something. Extremely strange, in not so good a way. I don't recommend trying this one at home.

# posted by Jenny @ 13:33