This is by far my favorite cubane series! I just love your style and its amazing to watch you grow as you have access to sponsors... i hope my videos can be on par too one day lol
I can tell you that purifying dioxane for really sensitive reactions is a pain. I start with stirring over KOH (300g per 0.75 L dioxane) overnight. Filter under inert atmosphere onto benzophenone / sodium and then reflux until purple (~ 1 day) and subsequently distill onto 3 Angstrom Molsieves or a sodium mirrored flask for storage
Very nice video! For such big scales, you should think about getting an overhead mechanical stirrer, would help a lot! As for benzophenone and ether purification: a rule of thumb used in my master's lab was to first reflux with just sodium, and when stuff stops change looks, add benzophenone then. So it won't be destroyed straight away but would do its job.
5:46. Benzophenone might be the catalyst for tar formation, depending on what the impurities are. It sounds like you added benzophenone to the big flask to check for reaction completeness. Next time take a sample from the big reactor, and react the little sample with benzophenone, not the whole thing.
This is quickly becoming one of my favourite chemistry chans on YT. I can foresee a bright future for you as a youtuber chemist! Keep up the good (funny) work! It's odd how to be successful at chemistry on RU-vid, it's more important for you to be a comedian than a good chemist, but when you have both is when the magic really happens and channels eventually end up popping off.
Nice to see the progress in your cubane adventure ☺️ the way you conducted the synthesis was really pleasing to watch and I love how articulate you are in explaining the steps. Nike Red joke took me out too 😂 wonderful job friend!
In awe of the absolute dedication of this man to be working on chem in the Sahara and during new year's eve. Are we going to see any octonitrated cubane???
