Define "triturate"
Lab309
Paul Buonora wrote:
> I am aware that the word triturate means to crush, grind or pulverize
> (as in making amalgams) and that in pharmacy, dilution of a solid with
> a inactive powder by grinding and mixing is called trituration.
> During a recent synthesis of a dipeptide I came across the instruction
> to "triturate with ether" in order to obtain the crystaline dipeptide
> from an oil. None of the above definitions appears to apply in the
> peptide case. A search in several dictionarys, and on the web, did
> not add anything new. Everyone in my department has their own
> definition/instructions for "triturate". During my early lab years I
> cleaned a crystal/oil mixture by washing the crushed crystals with a
> small amount of solvent, which my mentor referred to as "trituration".
> I am interested in obtaining definitions/practicle instructions
> relating to the term "triturate". Any incite from the group is
> appreciated.
> Thanks,
> Paul Buonora
> California State University, Long Beach
The key point here is that "trituration with (something)" is always done
in the context of having produced an oil, and, of course, wanting to get
crystalline material from it. To use the pharmacy definition as a template:
"...conversion of an oil with a solvent into a powder by grinding and
mixing...."
Often you can triturate an oil with a solvent (described in "The Organic
Chem Lab Survival Manual" "...loosely as beating an oil into a
crystalline solid") and the oil will start to produce some crystalline
material that you can carefully use to induce crystallization of the
rest of the oil, so that this crude solid can be removed from the
current solvent, and re-crystallized using a diffeent solvent that would
not promote oil formation.
Mere washing of crystals, crushed or not, is not trituration; without
the grinding and mixing to produce a solid from an oil, it's just washing.
--
Paul J. Franklin(moderator - sci.chem.organic.synthesis)
http://organicworldwide.net/sci.chem.organic.synthesis
Georgia State University <che...@panther.gsu.edu>
Atlanta, GA