It has been a long two days of IR, GC, NMR, and attempting to isolate our desired first product from unreacted materials still in solution. Thus far, it's been somewhat unsuccessful. Although it's clear from the spectra that 2-benzylcyclohexanol is in high abundance in my product solution, we haven't been able to purify it by vacuum distillation and aren't sure that we'll be able to perform the oxidation reaction as is. Tomorrow, we plan to use TLC spotting and column chromatography in a last shot at obtaining pure product prior to oxidation.
Unfortunately, this setback means that none of our monomers will be ready in time to polymerize at College of Charleston, which has been the source of some tension. I'm trying to remind myself that, in the real world, there isn't really a time-limit on research - even with the pressure to submit papers for certain journals and symposiums with deadlines - so I shouldn't be worried that three weeks of experimental work didn't yield the results that we had hoped for.
I expect that my group will have its work cut out for us during the upcoming semester.
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