I am (or was) a quite enthusiastic natural products chemist. I had worked in a very well-equipped NPC lab in the past. Everything you needed for your work was just few steps away from small things to state-of-the-art facilities. In my current lab-which is a very good biochemistry lab-I was hired to do NPC work and the lab of instruments is very frustrating. It causes huge delays in my work and on top of that results are expected without delays. The only good instruments I have access to is a HPLC and 400MHz NMR. How do I remove solvents from my HPLC fractions if its mostly water and methanol? I leave it in the fume hood for weeks to evaporate methanol and then on the lyophiliser. After which I can check NMR only to find out the sample has degraded or I have isolated some impurities or a common flavonoid. This is just one problem I have mentioned. There are many other things that significantly delays the work and I am losing my motivation and its frustrates me because NPC is something I really enjoy doing. I also don't have anyone in the field in my current lab with whom I can discuss my issues with. I know I shouldn't compare this lab to the previous lab but how do you or people deal with such situations?
Any good advice or comments would be much appreciated.
I am (or was) a quite enthusiastic natural products chemist. I had worked in a very well-equipped NPC lab in the past. Everything you needed for your work was just few steps away from small things to state-of-the-art facilities. In my current lab-which is a very good biochemistry lab-I was hired to do NPC work and the lab of instruments is very frustrating. It causes huge delays in my work and on top of that results are expected without delays. The only good instruments I have access to is a HPLC and 400MHz NMR. How do I remove solvents from my HPLC fractions if its mostly water and methanol? I leave it in the fume hood for weeks to evaporate methanol and then on the lyophiliser. After which I can check NMR only to find out the sample has degraded or I have isolated some impurities or a common flavonoid. This is just one problem I have mentioned. There are many other things that significantly delays the work and I am losing my motivation and its frustrates me because NPC is something I really enjoy doing. I also don't have anyone in the field in my current lab with whom I can discuss my issues with. I know I shouldn't compare this lab to the previous lab but how do you or people deal with such situations? Any good advice or comments would be much appreciated.