#fluorescense

[beautymagnified]

Eel under blue light -Fluoro diving in Okinawa by Shawn Miller Via Flickr: This eel fluoresced a bright green under blue light - Location: Okinawa-Japan

[labphoto]

There was a reaction what produced an intense fluorescent side product what I purified by column chromatography a week ago. After the purification I ended up with this oil what looks like this under UV light. It is simply fascinating, it looks adorable, or at least I think this about this small flask with the few mg of purified compound in it.

The best pictures from the blog, what are tagged as my portfolio, including this picture, could be purchased at Society6 as a high quality great looking print: http://society6.com/labphoto.

[labphoto]

Column chromatography of a small part of the previously done reaction. The test tubes and the column looks like I've been purifying fluorescein if it is viewed under UV light.

With this method I am able to separate the fluorescent compound from the other compounds what are present in the reaction mixture and it will be possible to find out that what have formed in the flask yesterday. The good point is, that it is not a black gunk(:

[labphoto]

Something strange happened here. The compound what I started from fluoresces with a deep green color and the compound what I am making fluoresces under UV light with a deep blue color and not this intense yellowish-green color. Conclusion: a side reaction happened and according to the TLC something went really wrong.

Let's find out that what was produced from this reaction... I hope that nobody added some fluorescein to my reaction while I was not in the lab...

[labphoto]

A condensation under UV lamp. The reaction product is an aromatic, highly fluorescent compound what produces this nice blue-green fluorescense under the UV light.

[labphoto]

A reaction product under UV light.

Even through it contains at least 5 compounds and the one that I need, only formed in a maximum 5%, it still looks great under UV light.

[labphoto]

A solution of ditosyl erythritol under UV light. As the reaction completes the green color should fade, since it is caused by the not yet reacted ditosyl compound. 

It could be pretty useful if one of the compounds what you work with fluoresces under UV light, since it could be detected in no time with a simple UV lamp, that is is present if the reaction or not.

[labphoto]

One of the most simple tests to show an organic compound present in a reaction mixture is irradiating the sample with UV light. If you know, that the product of the reaction should fluorescence blue, while the starting materials do not emit any light after irradiating the sample with UV, could help a lot while doing a reaction. 

In this case a side product formed from the reaction above 130 °C, while the desired product formed at 100 °C. The starting material and the product did not emit any light under UV, while the side product did. So after taking the picture, I was sure, that the reaction is ready.

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