a) What to expect (PhD, MSc, BSMS, external project students)

• A good training in using Schlenk and Glove box depending upon the duration of your stay, project requirment.
• Conducting medium pressure (5-10 bar) NMR scale reactions, Fischer-Porter and Parr hydrogenation reactions or especially dealing with gases using dedicated Swagelok assembly.
• Extensive use of purification techniques like extraction, crystallization, precipitation, column separation
• Routine use of NMR, IR, X-ray, HRMS, GC-MS and other analytical tools
• Design, synthesis, characterization and analysis of transition metal complexes, preparation of variety of novel, tailor made ligands including phosphine, carbene etc;, and screening these complexes in various catalytic applications.
• Basic organic synthesis mostly relevant to ligand synthesis.
• Report preparation, literature review, powerpoint presentation.
• Conference presentation, Publications

b) Essential safety practices in the laboratory

• The student must wear a lab coat and safety glass while doing any laboratory work.
• Gloves may be worn while dealing with toxic liquids and solids.
• It must be kept in mind that the student is aware of the chemicals he/she is handling. Read the safety data sheet of any chemical and try to store chemicals accordingly. For example, storage in the fridge, room temperature, glove box, desiccator. It is often the reagent quality which plays a huge role in the success of chemical reactions.
• One should aware of carcinogenic, flammable, toxic, irritant, corrosive etc chemicals. Spend some time to understand and learn the meaning of these symbols.
• Different gases are used for the laboratory experiments. For example, H₂ is flammable whereas Argon is inert. However, CO₂ and NH₃ should be handled as per the safety data sheet. Please pay attention to safety aspects.
• Please handle carefully vacuum lines while using liquid nitrogen especially freeze-pump-thaw.
• Special attention to be paid while storing and disposal of solvents, solid wastes, aqueous acid/base, inert material.
• Please do not throw any chemicals in the common waste bin or pour waste solvents in the sink. It has to be collected separately and safely disposed off.
• Some important links regarding safety are given below
• https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/safety-first/7413.article
• https://edu.rsc.org/resources/collections/health-and-safety-in-higher-education
• https://www.mynewlab.com/blog/a-visual-guide-to-science-safety-symbols-in-a-laboratory/
• https://bitesizebio.com/28135/safety-comes-first-common-laboratory-signs/
• https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/Laboratory+Safety+for+Chemistry+Students-p-9780470344286

(c) Good scientific practices

• Maintaining lab notebook, time-keeping in the laboratory
• Observation of physical changes like color, precipitation, crystals
• reproducibility, scale up
• maintainantence of the instruments
• Analysis of results, preparing reports
• Periodic discussions with thesis supervisor
• Professional conduct
• setting time-line oriented objectives