cobalt is cheap

Since the Ir has been going so awfully terrible I've been looking into other metals. For those of you familiar with the periodic table you'll notice that iridium metal is in group 9 of the d-block, along with Rh and Co. These are typically metals of similar reactivity (Ir and Rh closer to each other than Co) so its common to look at the same molecules with a different metal. Reason being, Ir is the sort of thing in which the global production is measured in ounces, whereas Co is measured in metric tonnes.

The more interesting part to me, since I don't personally pay for the metals I'm using, is that Co chemistry produces some of the deepest blue and green complexes that you'll come across. Look up Cobalt Blue in wikipedia and think, prettier than that. I made my first green complex ever, which completes my personal chemical spectrum. My better half does seem to believe me, so perhaps I'll have to document that in the blog. I'm pretty sure the only one I wouldn't be able to get my hands on immediately is red. Green is one of the less common colors in the lab though.

I digress. True to the title of the blog, I made the new Co complex and got crystals on the first try. High fives were distributed throughout the lab on the way down to the crystallographer, and it seems that the crystals are well behaved (not twinned) and diffract well. Sweet.

Neon yellow/green needle-like X-ray quality crystals were grown from a solution of pentane chilled to a temperature of -40 C overnight.