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I am in the final year of my PhD. I am working on a new type of ligand (this is like a man- made enzyme) i am trying to change the environment around a metal centre so that it can perform a reaction that would otherwise not be possible.

I try to get into work at 8 as it is quiet then and i can plan the day ahead. Time management is really important, setting up experiments can take hours and some need to be left over night or over the weekend to react. There is a lot of cleaning involved, because i work with metals and phosphine all of the glasswear i use has to be cleaned in strong alkali then strong acid solutions before being put in a really hot oven (200 C).

All of the materials i use cannot exposed to air as they react with the water and oxygen that is present and wither fall apart or set on fire. Therefore all of my experiments exclude the presence of air. I use a different gas that has no oxygen or water in it: nitrogen. There is a piece of equipment most people have in their fume cupboards that is connected to a nitrogen source and a vacuum pump . So i take my clean, hot glassware out of the oven and attach it to the vacuum so any moisture that has condensed is removed then i fill it with nitrogen. I have to do this three times to make sure then i can use my glassware.

Another way is to use a glovebox, this time we use argon instead of nitrogen, there are ports on the side so you can remove the air using a vacuum then bring it inside and do you experiment with no danger of it reacting with oxygen or water.

I use a piece of equipment called an autoclave , it is also called a bomb by people who don’t understand it. I take it into the glovebox and put all of the things i want to react together in it then seal it up with a spanner and take it to my fume cupboard where i attach it to my schlenk line. I then fill the atmosphere in the autoclave with a high pressure of carbon dioxide (another one of the things i need to react) and put it on a large hotplate. As it heats up the pressure increases, it makes a large noise when i release the pressure. I will put a photo of it below.