Welcome

Welcome to our group Lab Resources page, in which we briefly describe the resources at hand for the pursuit of life, happiness and organometallic chemistry. Our research currently involves about 50% synthesis and 50% catalysis, with much of the latter having to do with alkene polymerization. In addition to the departmental resources available (see departmental web pages) our lab is fully equipped for the needs of an organometallic chemist. This page should familiarize you with some of the techniques and resources we use.

The lab.

The solvent purification unit.

Because of the air sensitive nature of many of our compounds, we have some rather specialized needs and equipment. We are also very safety  conscientious, and use of the glove box and the solvent purification unit pictured above makes life a lot easier and avoids the use of the types of very dangerous stills (e.g. sodium metal desiccant) used in many labs elsewhere.

Andrew checking out the latest.

Kevin, enjoying himself.

The Environment

Queen's is a good place to do research, not only because of the quality of Chernoff Hall and our ultra-modern facilities but also because of the ambiance. 

Kingston city hall, originally the first House of Parliament of Canada

Chernoff Hall is very close to the lake, and pictured above is the lake shore just a short city block away from our lab.

Students can live within walking distance of the campus, unlike in larger cities. The lack of lengthy commuting means that it is readily possible to return to the lab evenings and weekends, making it easier to finish in a minimum amount of time.

On the waterfront in winter, The ferry is in an open water channel, the sailing boat on the ice. Ice boats can travel at >80 kph!

Equipment, Instruments

In addition to the excellent departmental instrumental resources listed below, we also have our own Perkin Elmer Spectrum One  Infrared Spectrometer, a Varian 3900 GC, and a CEM Discover microwave reactor.  Every fume hood contains a vacuum manifold specially designed to handle air sensitive materials, and we are also equipped with an MBraun glove box for carrying out manipulations which cannot readily be performed in the fume hoods. 

The departmental facilities which we use routinely include Bruker Avance 300, 400 (two; one with an automatic sample changer), 500 and 600 MHz NMR spectrometers. We also make extensive use of the departmental mass spec facilities, consisting of an Applied Biosystems Voyager DE STR MALDI TOF Instrument, an Applied Biosystems/MDS Sciex QSTAR XL (ESI, TurboIonspray, APCI, nanospray) with an Agilent HP1100 Cap-LC system, a Waters ZQ Single Quad Instrument equipped with an ESI/APcI multiprobe and a Waters 2695XE HPLC system equipped with a Photo Diode Array and a Fluorescence detector setup, and a Waters/- Micromass GC-TOF  system with an Agilent HP6890 GC system. This instrument is also equipped for direct EI/CI and FD. We also make extensive use of the departmental X-ray facility, which consists of a four-circle SMART system with a CCD detector equipped Bruker P4 diffractometer. 

Bryan honing his skills. All researchers in the group are equipped with their own fume hoods containing new argon and vacuum manifolds for the handling of air sensitive compounds. 

Danielle working in her fume hood.

Jessica, Laura and Lisa, summer of '09    

Shay in her work place; every researcher has his/her              own fume hood.  

Kingston is a fine old city with many buildings of historical value; pictured above is the waterfront by the old part of the city. The round building at the water's edge is a gun platform built many years ago as part of the city's fortifications built to repel an anticipated American invasion.  

On the waterfront

Queen's "East Campus"; Herstmonceux Castle in Sussex.