12/11/2025: The title is not intended to serve as a metaphor for grad school. The Handford Lab's first outing as a group, in which we made our way to Haidilao in Tustin and enjoyed some hot pot! Pictured: Back row (left to right): Rex, Mike, Jay, Brooke. Front row (left to right): Jayne, Sanya, April. Not pictured: Katherine.
The lab's first Schlenk line, constructed from some new components, and some inherited ones. We're pulling sub 10 microns! If you look to the top left, you can see a portion of our gas-addition quick connect fitting. There's also a needle valve to allow users to evacuate the nitrogen manifold in a controlled manner. If you or a friend knows where we can find 10 kg of mercury for bubblers... let us know. In the meantime though, we have oil bubblers with anti-siphons to prevent backflow.
The beautiful SPS that we share with the Borovik group. We are also picking up a second three-place SPS for toluene, benzene, and 1,2-difluorobenzene.
The day after uncrating the glovebox, we were able to join it together and do our first regen. It turns out this wasn't totally necessary, since the catalyst comes from the manufacturer in an activated state. But still, it can't hurt.
We built gas-addition quick connect fittings which are plumbed into the glovebox. Not pictured is a braided stainless-steel hose, which you can plug into the barrel-shaped connector in the center left of the image. This hose can be connected to a pressure vessel to perform high-pressure reactions inside of the box. Schlenk line purists everywhere shudder at the thought!
Continuing the slow but steady process of filling the glovebox.
