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Synthesis

Chemistry In Pictures

Chemistry in Pictures–Big Bird is born

November 16, 2017

A photo of 50 g of bright yellow, fluffy crystals that resemble feathers.
Credit: Andryj Borys (@AndryjBorys)

When his supervisor asked University of Kent graduate student Andryj Borys to recrystallize 50 g of crude product made by undergraduates in the lab, Borys jumped at the chance. “I’m not going to decline the opportunity to work with a 2.5 L Buchner flask!” he says. The product shown was formed by reacting mesitylamine and glyoxal to yield bis-imine. To form the feathery yellow crystals, Borys dissolved the crude product in boiling ethanol and allowed the solution to cool slowly and undisturbed.

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Credit: Tracy Schloemer
A photo of white crystals that resemble snowflakes lining a glass flask.
Credit: Tracy Schloemer

Borys (@AndryjBorys) submitted this photo as part of the #RealTimeChem photo contest. The two runners-up in the Crystal category were Amie Norton (@Aimster04) with these luminescent platinum crystals and Tracy Schloemer (@tracyhle) with this photo of a flask after rotovapping.

A photo of jagged, hot-pink crystals fluorescing in front of a black light.
Credit: Amie Norton

Do science. Take pictures. Win money. Enter our photo contest here.

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