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Synthesis

Chemistry In Pictures

Chemistry in Pictures: Curly wurly purple swirly

by Brianna Barbu
August 10, 2023
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Most Popular in Synthesis

 

A round-bottom flask with dark purple liquid in it and thin, curly purple crystals clinging to the inside walls.
Credit: Angus C. G. Shephard

These vine-like violet crystals climbing the sides of a flask added a touch of whimsy to Angus Shephard’s otherwise routine tetrahydrofuran distillation. Shephard, a postdoc at École Polytechnique in Palaiseau, France, studies f -block organometallic chemistry. The complexes he makes are sensitive to air and water, so every solvent he uses must be rigorously dried and deoxygenated. For THF, he typically accomplishes that by distilling the solvent under vacuum with sodium and benzophenone. The sodium reduces the benzophenone to form a ketyl radical that reacts with any stray molecules of water, oxygen, or peroxide around­­—and gives the solution a distinctive purple-blue color.

Credit: Angus C. G. Shephard

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