BOGroup: Lab book instructions

Your lab book is an important document detailing all practical aspects of your laboratory work. It is crucial to remember that other chemists, both inside and outside the group, must be able to read and extract the information from your lab book necessary to repeat your experiments. If this is not the case your results will be questioned and without much value to your project members. It is equally important that your lab book is organized in such a way that specific experiments or compounds can be readily identified as well as the accompanying spectroscopic data.

Because immediate observations and impressions often differ from those remembered a week or two later, it is of crucial importance to make your notes as an original record and not to copy them later from rough ones. It takes care and practice to produce accurate, full and clear records directly in this way but it is essential to acquire this skill. Occasional mistakes are inevitable and these should be clearly crossed out. If your normal handwriting is somewhat difficult to read, make a conscious effort to write your notes in a clear bold style.

  1. Table of contents:
  • Use the first pages to create a table of contents. Date, experiment number, product number, type of reaction and page number should be included. A reaction scheme is also very useful, although it takes up a lot of space.
  1. Experiment number:
  • General form AAX-000, example: BOA-023.
  • The first two letters (AA) are your initials.
  • The third letter (X) is the numbering of you lab book, where the first book is A, the next is B...
  • The numbers should be in consecutive order, starting with 001, 002, 003...NB:The next lab book starts from -001 again (e.g. BOB-001).
  1. Product number:

It is useful to have a unique number for each product that you make, especially when storing analysis data (see the analytical data instructions). This means that every time you repeat a reaction, the product gets the same number, although the experiment number is different.

  • General form AA-000, example: BO-038.
  • The letters are your initials as described above.
  • The numbers should be in consecutive order, starting with 001, 002, 003..., for each new product. A racemic product gets a different number than the enantiomerically enriched product.NB: These numbers are not the same as the experiment number. Do not start from 001 again when you start with a new lab book, just continue the consecutive order.
  • If you get several products (or byproducts) in a reaction, each product gets a unique number.
  • Discuss special cases with project members, in order to get a common, satisfactory routine (e. g. if many reactions in your project will lead to the same product but in various es/ds).
  1. Experimental part:
  • Write experiment title, date and experiment number on the headline.
  • Make a reaction scheme with product numbers.
  • Tabulate all reagents with molecular weight, density, moles, equiv., weight / volume used. Specify source / purity when appropriate (distilled, recrystallized, columned…)
  • Include relevant literature references or references to your own previous experiments.
  • Write the experimental clearly enough for someone else to follow! Include workup procedure too. If you run parallell reactions, you can refer to the first reaction in the set for all the details that are common for all the reactions.
  • Include TLC information (copy or make a drawing of the TLC plate) with eluation system.
  • Purification method should be mentioned detailed enough for someone else to repeat. For column chromatography, the amount of silica can practically be noted by noting the diameter and height of the column. Also write the eluation system(s). Distillation should be indicated with temperature and pressure.
  • If several fractions are collected from the column or distillation, the fractions can be numbered I, II, III… or A, B, C… to make them easily distinguishable in analysis data.
  • Analysis data: write if you have run an NMR (and if it was OK!), mp, HRMS etc, so any person looking can easily identify if there is a point in searching for these data in you analysis files. Mark your analysis data with the experiment number and product structure!

Write in English and use an ink pen!

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