Tampon capsules anyone?

Probably the weirdest reagent that I've come across so far...

Internet searches still have not yielded what this general purpose grade reagent is used for...

What the Heck?

OK, so that wasn't the wittiest of titles I could've come up with. But in my defence, it's half nine in the p.m., and here I am in the lab, all on my lonesome and waiting for a TLC to complete so that I can decide if I should chuck in more reagents or just go home...

I haven't been posting much recently as things haven't really been working - these days I've been trying to synthesise a radical trap which I've not so lovingly dubbed "the bomb", not so lovingly since it refuses to be made.

At this moment in time, I'm attempting a Heck reaction. I say attempt, because every time I've tried a Heck reaction before, it's failed.

Once again, it went black...

Maybe I should stop being so surprised when a reaction involving palladium in it goes black.

My mini work-up pre TLC

In the time it's taken me to write this, my TLC has now completed and it looks like I do indeed have something that could very possibly be the product...dundundun! But let's not breathe yet - I should run a crude NMR just to verify.

Or, I could just go home and eat/drink/sleep.

Peace out, organics x