So far things in lab have been going pretty smoothly. For the past few weeks I have been using a variation of DABCO. DABCO stands for 1,4-Diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane and looks like this...

It is with this variation that I made the interpenetrating diamond-like network. It seems as though trying to recreate the network using different metals hasn't been very effective, so now I've moved on to playing around with 1) the network itself and 2) another variation of the DABCO ligand.

1. As I have mentioned before, the network is very spacious! I recently set up a few experiments to see what kind of atoms and molecules we could put in the network. When I make the network, chloride ions sit within the spaces. The Cl ions come from the variation of the DABCO ligand, which uses Cl as an ion to balance out positive charges that reside on the nitrogens.

2. The second variation of the ligand uses different counter ions. Instead of Cl ions, it uses NO3 ions. I have just set up a lot of new solutions with different metals in hopes that this different ligand will get us some interesting crystals.

My other classes seem to be going well too. It has been a very busy time again because our mid-semester break is coming up (even though it is past the mid-semester)! I have planned a short 4 day trip to Tasmania, so I'm really excited for that! I'll keep you updated!

Stephanie