I Have a Research Support System

Xu Qiu summarized his experience gained from high-level deduction in the experiment record book:

First, monomers stored for a long time can be recrystallized or dried in a vacuum oven to remove the adsorbed water molecules and improve the purity of the monomers.

Second, under the condition that the monomer can be dissolved, reducing the amount of toluene solvent in the reaction can increase the concentration of the monomer and shorten the reaction time.

Third, when using a vacuum pump to pump air, use a hot blower to blow the outer wall of the glass instrument to heat it, which can improve the effect of oxygen removal.

Fourth, apply vacuum silicone grease to the mouth of the glass instrument bottle to improve its airtightness, but be careful not to apply too much to prevent the silicone grease from entering the reaction vessel and contaminating the reaction materials.

Fifth, the monomer raw materials are best stored in a nitrogen glove box, but if there is no glove box, they can also be stored in a sealed jar with a desiccant and kept away from light.

Sixth, the whole process of submitting and responding should be completed as soon as possible without operating errors.

...

Xu Qiu submitted the reaction of synthesizing PBT4T polymer in Zhang Jiang's laboratory, and he decided to use this system to practice in the simulation laboratory.

Although there is no need to worry about personal safety in the simulation laboratory, he still wears lab coats, gloves, and masks.

This is mainly to cultivate experimental habits. If you get used to not taking protection and forget to wear protective equipment in reality one day, it may be dangerous.

Xu Qiu first set up the device for re-distilling toluene, let the toluene start to heat and reflux, and turned on the double acceleration.

During this period, he cleaned the required glass instruments with absolute ethanol, put them in the oven, and also turned on the 2-fold acceleration.

Then, make a nitrogen balloon.

Next, the monomer is weighed.

The two monomers added up to a total of about 160 mg, and Xu Qiu poured them into two-necked flasks.

As for the recrystallized monomer, he has not considered it yet.

The monomer state obtained is white or yellow crystal, which is a relatively normal monomer state.

Moreover, the merchant has also issued NMR spectrum, infrared spectrum and other characterization results, which prove that the purity of the monomer is greater than 99%, so we can trust the quality of the monomer for the time being.

...

After the toluene indicator changed color, Xu Qiu collected about 50ml of toluene in the solvent distillation head.

After the toluene in the distillation head is cooled, pour the toluene into a disposable PE cup.

Considering that using less toluene solvent can help increase the reaction rate, he slowly added toluene dropwise to the two-necked flask containing the monomer with a disposable dropper while starting to stir.

After less than 3 ml of toluene was added dropwise, the monomer had completely dissolved.

It seems that the solubility of the monomer in toluene is still relatively high, definitely greater than 50 mg/ml.

However, the amount of 3 ml of solvent is still a bit small. It is estimated that after heating to 120 degrees Celsius, as soon as the toluene refluxes, the solvent below will be directly evaporated to dryness.

Xu Qiu thought for a moment, and replenished the amount of toluene solvent in the bottle to 8 ml, which was about half of the reaction in Zhang Jiang's laboratory during the day.

After that, he followed the third and fourth points in the record book.

First apply vacuum silicone grease to about one-third of the mouth of the glass instrument bottle, and then rotate the connection to make the silicone grease evenly coated.

Then carry out vacuuming and deoxygenation operation, first blow the outer wall of the glass instrument with a hot blower, and then control the three-way valve to complete the air extraction operation, repeat three times.

Then quickly weigh the catalyst, add it to the bottle, and vacuum again to remove oxygen.

Finally, the temperature was raised rapidly, and the reaction vessel was covered with aluminum foil.

...

Next, Xu Qiu cast the same response three more times, constantly familiarizing himself with the experimental operation and strengthening his muscle memory.

Now he no longer cares so much about the proficiency data on the system panel as when he first got the system, he cares more about his actual operating experience.

After all, only using the parameter of proficiency to judge the entire complex experimental operation can only make a general judgment.

Relatively speaking, feedback from the body may be more accurate.

After another two hours of continuous experiments, Xu Qiu felt a little tired.

Sitting on a round stool in the laboratory to rest, he began to think:

This reaction takes too long, and it is estimated that it will take at least 12 hours or more.

If you keep running the simulation lab, the waste of points is secondary, the main thing is to waste time, and the current acceleration rate is still low.

Perhaps after completing the advanced tasks, the effect of the simulation laboratory will be further enhanced.

For the time being, it is still mainly to be familiar with the experimental operation.

However, there are only four magnetic constant temperature heating stirrers, or oil baths, in the laboratory now.

Therefore, only four reactions can be cast at the same time, and the number of glass instruments is not enough.

Is there any way to solve this problem?

Xu Qiu had an idea and asked the system:

System, can the same thing be copied? Are there any restrictions?

[The same thing can be copied, and the cooling time is 24 hours. 】

It can be like this.

Xu Qiu discovered that he had done a lot of wasteful operations before, such as: washing a pile of substrates for later use.

In fact, you only need to copy a clean substrate once in a while.

However, it is not too late to know this feature.

After that, you can make more copies of the required instruments, equipment, and medicines, so you don’t have to worry about not having enough.

Xu Qiu looked at the time, and it was already past eleven o'clock in the evening.

He quit the simulation laboratory and returned to reality.

...

There was a message on the phone, and Xu Qiu clicked on it. It was a message sent by counselor Yu Qiang in the WeChat group:

@everyone

The class meeting will be held at 7 o'clock tomorrow night in the conference room on the second floor of the Advanced Materials Building.

Xu Qiu thought about going to Zhang Jiang to do the post-processing of the reaction tomorrow, and he didn't know how long it would take, so he found Chen Wanqing's WeChat and edited a message:

Sister, I have a class meeting at seven o'clock tomorrow night, can you make it back?

Waited a minute and got no reply.

Xu Qiu felt that she must be asleep, so she got up and got out of bed to take a shower.

Ren Bin was sitting by the computer, playing games with headphones on, while Tao Yan was missing.

Hearing Xu Qiu's movement, Ren Bin took off his earphones and said:

I woke up.

Oh, yes.

You have to pay attention to your body.

Facing the concern from his roommate, Xu Qiu nodded in embarrassment.

It seems that in the future, to enter the simulation laboratory, you need to find a good place.

However, what Ren Bin said is indeed reasonable. We must combine work and rest, and we cannot conduct high-intensity experiments for a long time.

I used to work on photovoltaic devices in the Handan Campus, operating in a glove box, doing experiments such as spin coating and evaporation, which was not very tiring, and I also had free time between experiments.

And like a synthetic experiment, once it starts, it will be a continuous experiment for several hours, and there is no way to stop it halfway, which consumes a lot of physical strength and energy.

Thanks to Lan Fengxin for the 500 starting coins.