Notebook notes

Use a descriptive title for your experiment. n-Butyl Bromide. So what Did you drink it Set it on fire What The Synthesis of 1-Bromobutane from 1 -Butanol—now that s a title. 

Do you see a section for unimportant side reactions No. Then don t include any. 

I m a firm believer in the use of units, factor-label method, dimensional analysis, whatever you call it. I KNOW I ve screwed up if my units are (g 1-butanol) 2/mole 1-butanol. 

Remember the huge writeup on the Separation of a Liquid Mixture by Distillation, drawings of apparatus and all Well, the line the mixture was purified by distillation, (Fig. 9) is all you write for the distillation during this synthesis. 

At the end of the synthesis, you calculate the percent yield. Just divide the amount you actually prepared by the amount you calculated you d get, and multiply this fraction by 100. For this synthesis, I calculated a yield of 25.44 g of product. For this reaction on the bench, I actually obtained 16.2 g of product. So  

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Principe, Lawrence M. Newly discovered Boyle documents in the Royal Society archive alchemical tracts and his student notebook. Notes Rees Roy Soc 49 (1995) 57-70. 

Merk-blatt, fi. leaflet pamphlet memorandum. -buch, n. notebook, merken, v.t. mark, notice, perceive, note, merkenswert, a. noteworthy, remarkable. Merkfarbe, /. indicator color, merklich, a. perceptible, noticeable, appreciable. 

Your teacher demonstrated the effect of heating steel wool, and it proved to be a spectacular exception to the generalization about melting. An inexperienced observer might note this special behavior in his notebook, cross reference it under Sparklers, and proceed to the next substance. A curious person, however, cannot resist wondering, Why does steel wool behave in this special manner ... 

In your experimentation, be alert and ready for unexpected developments. Record in your notebook at the moment of observation a description of everything you see. The time of the observation frequently has importance. Completeness is, by far, the most important property of a good notebook. Next in importance, legibility, neatness, and organization make your notebook a more valuable record. Whenever possible, prepare tables in advance for the results of measurements you can anticipate. This guarantees that you won t forget to note important information, and it frees you from clerical work during an experiment. 

All bench-mounted equipment should be listed with its dimensions, which can be taken from measurements or from catalog data. It should be noted which instruments may have to be put at a certain minimum distance from other objects in order to avoid interference or allow for servicing. Work space should be allowed next to each instiiiment for samples, notebooks, etc. This space may be considerable in case of an analytical instrument on which many samples are to be tested at one time. Space sharing should be discouraged, with the required work space next to an instrument reserved for that alone. Sinks and fume hoods should also be included in this list, with an allowance of at least 18 inches of free space on each side of a sink. 

The receipt of the test substance should be documented upon arrival at the test site. The name of the product, manufacturer, active ingredient concentration, expiration date, storage location, storage requirements, lot or batch number, the amount received, the condition at receipt, and whether the material is an emulsifiable concentrate (EC), fiowable, powder or otherwise should be noted in the research notebook. In addition, one should note the purchase date, the shipment date, and the carrier of the product. 

With electronic notebook studies, there will also be paper data to audit. This will include facility data (e.g., weather data, equipment maintenance records, storage temperature logs, personnel records, etc.) and study specific documents, such as faxes, e-mails, paper notes, etc. When paper data have been transcribed into the electronic notebook, they should be checked by QA to ensure accuracy. Any data that have been transcribed for whatever reason must be identified as such with the original raw data attached to them. QA should ensure that all paper data have adequate identification (e.g., study and trial numbers), that they are recorded per GLP, including dated signatures, and that all of the pertinent paper data or exact copies are sent to the Study Director for archiving. 

Unfortunately, the labels on 36 containers were either damaged or burned beyond recognition during the incident. To further complicate matters, much of the information contained in the assistant s notebook was damaged as well. This notebook contained practical facts about the elements uses and traits, and data collected by other students. What did survive, however, were the etched serial numbers on each of the containers, which the assistant often referenced in notes. 

The professor provided you with a list of notes and observations based on data from the damaged notebook. Figure A is a periodic table with the unknown elements omitted. 

If a reference "teaches away" from some research activity (e.g., selecting a particular chemotype for modification, modifying a chemo-type in a specific fashion, or making a particular salt form), note this in the laboratory notebook and in the invention disclosure form. 

References abound to both Thorpe and Watts Dictionary in Soddy s course notebooks, for example, in his notes for his year of general chemistry studies at University College of Wales, Aberystwyth (Soddy 1894). 

An experiment should always be performed at known temperature. Furthermore, the temperature should be constant throughout the course of the experiment, and should be noted in the laboratory notebook. 

But you didn t read that line, or the next, or the next. So you are a danger to yourself and everyone else. Read and take notes on any experiment before you come to lab (see Chapter 2, Keeping a Notebook ). 

Read the following handwritten notebook pages with some care and attention to the typeset notes in the margin. A thousand words are worth a picture or so (Figs. 2-4). 

Add 3 ml of a solvent, stopper the tube, and shake the bejesus out of it. If all of the solid dissolves at room temperature, then your solid is soluble. Do not use this solvent as a recrystallization solvent. (You must make note of this in your notebook, though). 

Then, know your learning style. Do you learn best in a quiet room, or do you need music in the background Whatever the case may be, find the location that best suits you. Do you need to take notes to remember facts and details Have a pen, pencil, highlighter, and notebook ready. Are you at your best early in the morning or late at night Pick the best time, get comfortable, and begin. 

On the mixture chromatograms, identify each peak (as well as possible) based on retention time data from the individual chromatograms. Note these identities on the mixture chromatograms. The chromatograms should be placed in the data section of your notebook. Also in your notebook indicate which column provides the best separation and explain this observation. Also explain how the resolution might be improved. 

A survey of this kind, however, no matter how thorough, is of no value to anyone but yourself if the findings are not recorded. As you go around the plant you should carry and use a notebook, scratch pad, or portable tape recorder to record your comments as you find them. This record need not be anything more than field notes that include the date, time, and loca-... 

Success in the battery market depends largely on four factors, noted in Figure 10. The market for batteries in Table 1 is directly related to the applications they serve, such as automobiles, cellular phones, notebook computers, and other portable electronic devices. The growth in any particular segment follows closely the introduction of new devices powered by batteries. The introduction of new materials with higher performance parameters gives the various designers freedom to incorporate new functionality in present products or to create new products to... 

Note any unusual occurrences, even if they indicate some laziness or inattentiveness on your part. Despite aU earnest attempts to keep an experiment from going awry, the complexity of most experiments conspires to introduce error or accidents into all observations. (It s far better to acknowledge an erroneous or suspicious measurement than to send later readers (including yourself) off on a series of experiments to follow up on a misleading observation that appears in your notebook without comment.)... 

In terms of test substances, reagents, and samples, the QAU would want to look in the notebooks or logbooks to see if these substances are properly identified. It would also want to look at the container labels for proper identification (identity, concentration, composition, storage requirements, and expiration date). It would want to take note of expiration dates to see if all test substances and reagents are current. It would look for proper storage of substances, chain-of-custody documentation (date, quantity, distributor, receiver, etc.), and sample labels to see if they are adequate to avoid mixups. 

Paper work that has been generated should be page numbered (with initials) and preserved, ultimately to be bound. The student s laboratory notebook should also summarize the work that has been done. The exact procedures that are used for the preservation of notes on experiments vary from institution to institution. The student should be instructed in the appropriate method what is used at the particular laboratory under consideration. 

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