update on GC-MS

Ok, I told myself that I would never write another blog like the last one because that was just pathetic. But, I am going against that because it has been finally declared that all GC's in any form hate the group of students that I am working with (including myself). Meaning, I need to vent.

So, on Tuesday, when we first got there the Helium tank used to pump the solutions through the column had run dry, so we had to wait to get a new one for about an hour. Finally, we tried to run a solution of various molecules through. The data we got in return was a ton of junk that didn't resemble anything that we had injected. We decided that that is probably because the last group didn't get rid of all their solution from the column before leaving, or that it was caused by the loss of a constant stream of Helium. So, we ran the column hot for a bit to get rid of everything in it. We then tried injecting several different times on the column and we weren't getting any data whatsoever. So, we gave up and left. The guy in charge of that instrument came in and tried to fix it the next day.

On Thursday, we come back to finish the lab. The guy in charge told us that apparently the column literally broke in half so nothing was getting through. Also, the interface between the GC and MS was broken, and everything inside was contaminated because of the Helium running dry. Well, he said he fixed everything and that we should be good today. So we injected once with too much solution so the data that came back was pretty sketchy. We then injected a second time, but forgot to turn on the program used to run the machine, so that data was bad. After that we tried injecting several times but nothing was going in, and after trying the syringe would always plug up and not suck anything into it. We went through about 3 syringes and still couldn't figure out what was going on. Nothing was getting onto the column, thus no data. Finally, we gave up for the rest of the day after we finally realized that what was happening was the septum used to prevent contamination of the column was falling apart and so bits of it would go into the syringe and plugging it up. BAH!

Well, after you combine this with the problems we had with the GC that we tried doing labs on about a month ago, the teachers and TA's have declared that we are cursed when it comes to GCs. (last time when working with the plain GC the helium also went dry, the septum was bad, the column was barely functional, the pump stopped working, the ink ran out on the only piece of equipment that we can get our data from). Thank goodness this is the last GC we are working with, but in a few weeks we will be working with the HPLC which is similar enough to the GC that we are dreading when that lab comes.

Well, sorry for the random technical terms. I didn't try very hard to explain this in English cause that takes time that I don't have and I am too ticked to try to use English terms.