run of bad luck

so, things aren’t going so well recently…

the nitrogen tank we replaced tuesday(?) is already almost gone, and we haven’t done much with it. we purged in a lot of solvents yesterday, but that wasn’t what killed it. it’s taken an unexpectedly large amount of the tank to purge the box down from 50-ish ppm oxygen, and it doesn’t want to stay down this time. it’s currently hovering near 15, but it keeps going up when we aren’t purging. i don’t like how it’s behaving, and it’s making me hesitant to do the next step in my reaction. my catalyst (so pretty!) is super-air sensitive, and i don’t want it going off as soon as i uncap it because of some personal problems the box is going through at the moment.

also, yesterday saw me in a long run of broken glassware. i managed to kill off a 1000 mL round bottom flask, a 50 mL round bottom flask, and a bottle. i have a theory that it’s because they were wet when i flame-dried them, but i’ve never had that problem before. it’s so crazy.

i’m glad i only have a week and a day left. i think i’m starting to get frustrated with this stuff.

~ by scififreaker on 2008.June.26.