WEBVTT

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So good afternoon, everyone.

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My name is Kate.

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I'm a chemistry major.

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And I would like to
tell you a little bit

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about the taste [INAUDIBLE].

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So I work in the
chemistry department

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at Mount Holyoke College
under the mentorship

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of Kyle Broaders.

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I've been working with Professor
Broaders since January.

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That's why I had
this opportunity

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to work with him over
the summer on my project.

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That was based on synthesis
of biodegradable polymers.

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So some of you may
ask, what is a polymer?

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So we define it as a
long chain of monomers.

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You can imagine
monomers as those beads.

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And when you combine all of
them, what you gonna get?

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You're gonna get this necklace.

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So this is a polymer.

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And those polymers have
amazing properties.

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We actually use
them all the time.

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Some people actually
brought polymers today.

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Your plastic bottles, they
are made out of polymers.

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Exactly.

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What is the main problem?

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Well, most of them,
they are non degradable.

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That's why we decided to
synthesize polymers that

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will be actually biodegradable.

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Why?

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Sorry.

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Why?

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Because you can make plastics
that are easy to recycle

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and is environmentally friendly.

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You have a lot of
different applications.

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For example, in engineering, you
make [INAUDIBLE] out of those.

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And you can hear more actually
about applications in medicine.

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For example, [INAUDIBLE].

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So I'd like to tell you a little
bit about my synthesis process.

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And don't get scared of
those structures over here.

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This is just to help
me a little bit.

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So my goal was to synthesize
this product, which

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is our monomer, right?

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And it looks similar
to lactic acid.

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And our starting material
was this molecule.

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So after about 50 different
procedures we find out that we

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cannot synthesize
this simple monomer.

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We were able to synthesize
this middle product, which

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is our intermediate.

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But we were never able to
get to our desired product.

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I cannot say we didn't
synthesize it at all.

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Maybe there was a mixture
of different side product

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and our desired
product, but I couldn't

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tell this after
[? purification ?]

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or after running an
analysis [INAUDIBLE]..

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That's why we decided
to try something

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different, different protocols.

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So we decided to
follow this protocol.

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And this structure is a little
bit different than that one.

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However, this monomer
is still biodegradable.

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So it's good.

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And actually we
synthesized that.

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I confirmed [INAUDIBLE]
different analysis techniques.

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And I was even able to
polymerize this material.

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So [INAUDIBLE].

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What is the problem?

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Over here, I use very
toxic conditions.

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This is diphosgene.

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And some of you may
know soldiers used them

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during the first World War,
and it's called mustard gas.

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So we got our desired product.

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We got our polymer,
which is perfect.

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Still, we cannot [INAUDIBLE].

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Needs to be there all the time.

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And actually, over the
summer, we had small accident.

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Thanks god everyone's fine.

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That's why, at the
end of my internship,

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we decided to try
different protocol.

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And we were able to get
this structure, which

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is, again, a little bit
different than those two,

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as you can see.

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But still, it's biodegradable.

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And that's the most
important for us.

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And better news is its
synthesis is very easy

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and actually it's pretty
green, because we don't use

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those toxic materials anymore.

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And right now I'm in the
process of polymerization,

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and I believe I can
reach to that point.

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I just still need to
confirm it by rendering

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analysis techniques.

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So what's a typical day, so
many different structures.

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But actually I will need
to mention this fun part.

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As you can see, this is the
most beautiful apparatus

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that organic
chemists can imagine.

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It's quite expensive.

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But we had a lot of fun
running those reactions.

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Those reactions may take
from 10 minutes to 10 days

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depending on the procedure.

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And after that, we
ran our analysis.

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Once we get our product,
we run analysis.

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And this is the example of
the machine that they use.

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We have it actually
in our campus.

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It's pretty expensive.

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It's about half
a million dollar.

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But it tells us more about
the structure of our product.

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We can find the structure
by looking at protons, which

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are hydrogens, or carbons.

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This is the example
of the data received

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from this machine, which is
called NMR, Nuclear Magnetic

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Resonance.

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And you may look at this and
if you don't have any chemistry

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background and never
took organic chemistry,

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you're gonna say, this is
pretty complicated, right?

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But I have to tell you,
as an organic chemist,

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it is pretty
complicated even for me.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Sometimes we spend
a few hours trying

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to analyze those little peaks.

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Sometimes it takes
longer than a few hours.

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A few days, I would say.

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Why is this so important?

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As you can see, this
looks like a mess to you.

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And it is a mess.

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And we have to analyze
each single peak.

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That's why it's so
difficult. [INAUDIBLE]

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your product it's all worth it.

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So what is my goal?

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This internship
actually reinforced

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my goals of getting
into a graduate program

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in organic chemistry.

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It's been a stressful
experience, especially when you

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run 50 different reactions
and it doesn't work at all.

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It's stressful when you have
to use very toxic materials

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like diphosgene.

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But I discovered a
huge passion to that.

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And if I can spend
eight or 12 hours,

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I don't mind, because I love it.

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And at the end, I'd like
to thank you, all of you,

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for coming to this presentation.

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It's pretty late, but thank you.

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Also I'd like to thank
my amazing group.

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Those people have been amazing
and they made my summer.

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Because if you have to spend
with them eight or 12 or even

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14 hours per day,
even the weekends,

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you have to really like them.

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And we had a lot
of fun together.

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And I'd like to thank
my research advisor, who

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couldn't be here today.

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But he's been very helpful and
he was always there for us.

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He gave me a lot of
support, especially when I

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felt a little bit down after
running those 50 reactions.

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And he was every single day
with us to answer questions.

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So that was also amazing
opportunity for me

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to learn more about
different chemistry

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techniques, analytical
and synthetic techniques.

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Thank you.

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[APPLAUSE]

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