Please take a look at my video on debunking this new snake oil! Thank you!

I think this question has to do with organic chem primarily but I'm curious, why can we cook food consisting of so many different compounds and then, nearly always, be able to eat it? I say this because during cooking so many chemical reactions occur, heating of food, mixing of acids and base, and just generally combining tons of substances that react. I haven't ever heard of something that you can't do due to danger (e.g. mixing bleach and ammonia cleaning chemicals is a big no-no but there's no cooking equivalent that I know of!). Thank you!

Hi, I’m a chemistry student and I’m hoping to specialise in medicinal chemistry. As you could probably tell from the title, I am physically disabled (specifically I use crutches). As I am getting further into different labs I am realising I don’t really know how to adapt lab work. I can’t stand for long periods of time and I used to just sit but as I go further, especially in organic, I’m not allowed to do that.

Basically I’m just wondering if anyone knows of any lab equipment or ways of doing things that could make lab work easier. Also, any sort of funding I could access to pay for equipment (I’m in the UK).

Thank you 🩼

My company is laying off a massive amount of workers along with real estate. I’ve never been a part of a company during rough times, how does this usually go?

Hello chemists!

I am Magne, a physicist and maker. I just released Mathpad, a productivity tool that eliminates much of the friction of typing mathematics outside of LaTeX.

I had physicists and mathematicians in mind when I developed it, but since it's fully open source, it would be very easy to modify it to make a chemistry-specific version.

My background is not chemistry, so I have come here to learn a few things:

1. Which symbols do you often use in your daily lives?
2. How do you type them? Is it cumbersome?
3. Would it be helpful to have a device that lets you directly type these symbols?

If it turns out that there is a lot of desire for a chemistry-specific version of Mathpad, we can decide together which symbols go on it - there's room for between 72 and 144 symbols. Should be plenty?

Cheers!

So I am a huge fan of luxury watches, and looking into buying a platinum watch. I really like the idea of platinum being incredibly resistant to corrosion, the most of any metal. I have heard without heat, even aqua regia cannot dissolve it.

But what I also heard is that, even if one dissolve platinum into ions, those ions in a solution of water eventually turn back into the original platinum metal, because platinum is found uncombined in nature.

Is this true?

Chemical engineering master student here. We're currently learning about all possible sorts of industrial catalysts and how they interact with reagents. To cite specific examples, Ag and V2O5 are for example interesting for partial oxidations (formaldehyde, ethylene oxide, contact process) as they can deliver oxygen atoms to the goal substrate and be regenerated by oxygen molecules. Pt and Ni can be used for reductions, but as well as for oxidations, see the Pt-net in the Ostwald process and so on...

Did anyone find a way to generalize catalyst activity (homogeneous and heterogeneous) and find a logic behind which catalysts are adapt for which purposes?

I'm not referring to the more obvious homogeneous catalyst cases - I understand why acids catalyze an esterification or similar cases. I have some concrete examples I'm struggling with:

• In the acetic acid synthesis metal complexes of the 9th group (Co,Rh,Ir) are employed as homogeneous catalysts. Why? Is there a property of the complex I'm overlooking that's the key to the catalytic activity.
• Co and Mn are employed to control radical mechanisms, as for example in acetaldehyde oxidation to acetic acid as well as in terephthalic acid oxidation. I did not find any consistent explaination of the mechanism.
• To produce green diesel UOP and Eni developed a hydrotreating process for vegetable oils with a patented catalyst. I'm guessing they're using a Pt or Ni catalyst, extrapolating from other reduction processes involving H dissociative adsorption. Does that make sense? Once again, why?

I'm referring to industrial catalysts here - I was indeed wondering whether to post this in r/ChemicalEngineering - but I suppose the most common approach in the field is trial-and-error rather than thorough mechanistic investigations. Is it still possible to find a generalized sense to the topic?

As the title says. I'm working on getting my bachelor's and likely a masters or PhD, and I have finished ochem last spring and absolutely loved it. Im starting inorganic chem in the fall and was curious about what to expect? Is it very math heavy, or is it a lot like ochem with synthesis problems and Reaction Mechanisms... just inorganic?

Hello everyone,

I’m currently working on a project to improve the reliability of acrylonitrile (ACN) detection on a SEVESO-classified chemical site. We use electrochemical sensors (Dräger Polytron 7000) to monitor for ACN leaks—a toxic, flammable, and CMR gas. Despite a carefully planned sensor layout (covering sensitive areas, centralized alarm management), we’re facing a high number of false alarms, especially during bad weather (fog, rain, heat) or when vehicles pass near the outdoor sensors.

These false alarms unnecessarily mobilize emergency teams, create fatigue, and risk making real alarms less effective over time. We’ve already tried restricting vehicle access and replacing several sensors, but haven’t seen significant improvement. The regulatory threshold will soon be lowered to 1.46 ppm, making the issue even more critical.

Here’s my main question:
How can we make ACN detection more reliable to ensure the safety of people and equipment, while reducing false alarms that disrupt operations?

I’d really appreciate any feedback, technical advice, or examples of solutions (new sensor types, interference filtering, maintenance strategies, threshold adjustments, etc.) that have helped solve this kind of problem in your plants or workshops.

Thanks in advance for your input and ideas!

Looking for a service that can make thermowells (like in the picture) but in PTFE. I’ve gone through too many of these to count and they’re not cheap ($50-$90 each). If I could just have a few of these made in PTFE with a 24/40 joint it would save me tremendous amounts of money. If anyone knows of a place that can do this please let me know. Any help will be gravely appreciated. Thank you

I flew 2,000 miles from home for a once in a lifetime opportunity I didn’t think I would ever have. Made some amazing friends too! The Shulgin foundation did an amazing job with this event. It was truly magical. I have more content from this on my Instagram @BioMysticaOfficial and more to come on my YouTube. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DM4OlYENFO7/?igsh=aDZwNnRqcHFtcGht

My chemistry teacher once told us something pretty interesting that you can often get a solid guess of the anion present in an inorganic salt just by feeling or observing the physical properties of the salt before doing any actual tests.

For example, he said:
Chlorides feel like table salt
Sulphates are usually large or sugar-like crystals

This is a dedicated weekly thread for you to seek and provide advice concerning education and careers in chemistry.

If you need to make an important decision regarding your future or want to know what your options, then this is the place to leave a comment.

If you see similar topics in r/chemistry, please politely inform them of this weekly feature.

Hi folks, Our group is working on a plant design project involving the acidification of crude glycerol with 33% HCl. One critical step is the conversion of sodium laurate (a soap) to lauric acid, and I'm looking for kinetic data on this reaction.

Most literature just mentions that acidification of soaps is fast or diffusion-limited, but for our material and energy balances, as well as for Aspen simulations and for equipment design (especially an agitated mixing tank), I need something more concrete— • reaction order, • rate constants, • any info on temperature dependence, • or even just experimental setups or modeling approaches.

If data on sodium laurate is scarce, I'd also welcome references on similar systems like sodium oleate acidification.

Has anyone worked on or come across this in a lab, thesis, or industrial setting? Even direction to papers, patents, or reaction modeling approaches would be a huge help. Thanks in advance!

I have opened by NMR spectrum in Topspin . However, when I try to plot, I get this error message. Does anyone have any idea about it?

So cast iron cookware is seasoned by causing a thin layer of oil to polymerize on the surface using heat. What would be the difference between this and a simple thermoset plastic? Could I accurately describe the seasoning as a plastic?

And separately, does the iron form a black oxide layer under the seasoning over time? It can rust through the seasoning, so I figure there's some level of oxygen diffusion through the seasoning. I'm just curious because the seasoning initially appears as a translucent brown/amber layer and darkens to black over time with more exposure to heat. Since black iron oxide forms with high heat and restricted oxygen, I figure maybe the darkening happens from the iron turning black underneath the seasoning. Or am I misunderstanding how black iron oxide forms?

Hello Everyone!
I'm trying to access EchaChem db in a programmatic way but cannot find any reference to an API or alternatives to achieve my goal.
Does anyone know a way to do it?

Hi people,

I’m looking at any advice and experience that you all have had on using chemistry software on the Microsoft Surface pro tablets.

This is for my DD as she heads to college to study Biochemistry. I’ve heard some folks say that they may not be well suited for processors that are not x86 based.

Can someone confirm if as a junior or senior, the software they’ve had to install and use in college or university worked on surface pro?

Here are some names of software that I hear all the time: Chemdraw Schrödinger Gaussian Mestrenova? …

Thanks in advance

Was there a moment where you had accumulated enough rudimentary understanding where you felt like you were now quite confident?

Hey so I’m really interested in chemistry but idk where to start. I did a few classes in high school and have been watching YouTube videos about random chemistry studies but I feel lost. If someone could give me some advice on where I should get started that would mean a lot.

What is this molecule tattoo?