Clear's January purchase of the blue Biotage Isolera One allows for automated column chromatography. It mixes solvents to change elution gradients, has a UV detector to create a chromatogram, and it also has a fraction collector! Biology major Danielle Voss used this device to purify reaction products in her urushiol synthesis in Clear's lab. Urushiol is the "poison" in poison ivy.
Freeze Dryer (in the middle)
At the start of the fall semester the Clear lab obtained a VirTis Lyophilizer which is used in combination with a freezer to remove water from a sample. Rather than boil or evaporate water from a sample, the sample is first frozen and then pressure and heat from the lyophilizer causes the frozen water to sublimate directly to gaseous form to dehydrate the sample. The cryobath (from Professor Bill Feighery) standing to the right of the Lyophilizer is used to freeze the samples before they are loaded onto the lyophilizer. Chemistry major Sabrah Alajmi used it many times during the fall semester to remove water from the products of polyallyamine guanylation reactions to isolate the polyallyamine-polyallylguanidine copolymer.
Vacuum Oven (on the right)
Clear also purchased a Fisher Scientific Vacuum Oven with the freeze dryer. They arrived together during the first week of fall classes in a single crate that nearly took up the entire hallway! His group will use the oven to prepare polymer networks in future work.
