I spent well over two years implementing a project to turn forest garbage (plastic waste) into fluorescent dyes (activators) used in popular "fireflies", glow sticks and glow sticks. It started with a crazy idea, and then it was just a matter of "making the impossible possible." It took so much time because I had to build it all from scratch: adapt the entire chemistry laboratory - reagents, equipment and even furniture. Perhaps the most important element of this trip for me was learning more about organic chemistry. I gained an incredible amount of experience, practical skills and knowledge. In a very short time, by saving a large part of my salary, I turned the old basement into a miniature research institute. I can probably admit immodestly that a poor university would not be ashamed of such an arsenal of reagents and glass.
With the first success - receiving DPA (9,10-diphenylanthracene), I became hungry for more. I wanted to create new "constructions" and study their properties. The more I delved into scientific publications and Vogel's recipes, the more dots I was able to connect. It was not an art to buy all the substrates in the store and then simply follow the recipe. I created a whole chain syntheses that led from PET bottles, polystyrene and gloves, through basic building blocks such as benzene, phthalic anhydride, styrene, to quite complex structures that were capable of converting UV radiation or energy from chemical reactions into light visible to the human eye , how nice its color.
CONTENTS:
00:00 - INTRO
00:57 - ANTHRAQUINONE STEP 1 (Synthesis of o-benzoylbenzoic acid)
03:35 - ANTHRAQUINONE STAGE 2 (Closing the ring)
04:17 - BPEA [9,10-Bis(phenylethynyl)anthracene]
08:29 - DPA 9,10-Diphenylanthracene (and close family)
08:59 - RUBRENE, EOSINE and new derivatives of rubrene
09:50 - TCPO REPLACEMENT (DEVO) bis(4-hydroxy-3-ethoxybenzaldehyde) oxalate
10:53 - Glow stick DIY
11:45 - THE BIG LIGHT TEST
12:14 - End
12:35 - Important final information