Thread by @In2science

🌟Ready for another #TakeoverThursday? 🌟

Today we have @LilyKenchEvans who is a student in @LIMSLTU @latrobe who will be walking us through a day in the life of a Chemistry Honours student 🧪 @ltu_researchers

This post is in celebration of @nationalmoleday (23/10) 🥳

As most of my day is spent in the lab, I start with desk work such as checking data, especially if an analysis has run overnight.

While you prepare your food for the day (🥣), I am creating a to-do list & preparing my chemicals for the day's reactions 🧑‍🔬🔬

As a reaction usually runs overnight, I then purify one from the previous day, as there may be a by-product I need to remove.

I can visualize what is in the reaction mixture through dots on a TLC plate, as seen below 🤠.

Once I have an idea of what is in the mixture, I can think about the properties of each component (maybe there is some starting materials and a by-product), and how to get the best separation.

This usually involves running a column (like a big 3D TLC plate!) see below⚗️

Once the compound is pure, like this crystalline solid see here, I can use it for subsequent syntheses.

For my Honours project, I aimed to make some metal complexes that were hypothesised to have an antibacterial effect, to combat antimicrobial resistance #AMR @COADD_news 💊

During the day if I’m waiting for a reaction to run, a product to dry, or an analysis to finish, I’ll study and work on assignments.

I’ll also do any extra-curricular work i.e., volunteering, attending student representative meetings, preparing for a lab meeting presentation. 📚

While I love being in the lab, I always make time to go outside to enjoy nature on the La Trobe Bundoora campus, get some fresh air, and sit down after standing for most of the day! 🦆🌻

I then head back upstairs, run some more analyses, calculations and prepare for tomorrow!🖥️

Being a chemistry student means no two days are the same, and I am always problem-solving!

I love how chemistry helps us understand the atomic world including the molecular underpinnings of disease!

And I’ll never get tired of having full conversations over drawings 😊