r/chemistry

Hi everyone I just started working as a process engineering intern and I work in a chemistry lab with very harsh chemicals. I don’t have a chemical engineering background so I have only took a general chemistry lab which does not require very hard chemical analysis.

Anyways, I have accidentally dropped some drops of chemicals on my jeans while working and after washing them they start ripping at the stained spots. I was wondering if there is any brand of pants for chemical resistance. There isn’t any good ones on amazon and I tried levi’s pants like dickies material but they also ripped. Any recommendations?

[supprimé]

Making a cloud chamber to show radiation to my students, but need the strongest possible thermal gradient. I can't easily get dry ice where I live or get LN2.
I know freezers can go down to -18C, and sprinkling NaCl on ice is endothermic and will cool that ice/water mixture down to -21C, but I'm sure there's ways to cool down even further without expensive or restricted chemicals. I'm aware ammonium nitrate is even better at this than salt but there's no way I am synthesizing ammonium nitrate at home.

Suggestions?

Hello everyone, I recently graduated with a B.S. in Chemistry and had been job searching/co-op searching/intership searching my entire senior year with no real luck. I live in Houston with tons of industrial and medical jobs available but I cannot get a call back. I have been a research assistant, have excellent recommendations, and actual valuable hands-on experience and skill with GC-ICP-MS, UHPLC, FT-IR, NMR, you name it I have used it and actually know how to use these instruments and techniques with confidence and accuracy. I have been accepted into grad school with my classes being at night 7-10pm. I thought grad school would boost interest in companies wanting to hire me, but instead it has been a major turn off for the jobs I have interviewed for since it limits my availability to travel and/or do shift work. I have started even applying for lab tech jobs that only require a HS diploma because I am running out of options. I’m not sure if this is the correct sub to ask this, but I am looking for possible advice or merely words of encouragement/if you have been in this position before. I get paid $3000 a semester for my research assistant position but I am so desperately wanting to get into industry.

After two failed software implementations and finally finding a platform that works, I want to share the expensive lessons learned.

Mistake one was buying based on the demo. Every platform looks great when a sales person is driving it with pre-loaded data and a script. The first platform we bought was beautiful in the demo and unusable in practice because the search function couldn't handle our product naming inconsistencies.

Mistake two was prioritizing features over usability. The second platform had every feature imaginable, including several we'd never use, but the learning curve was so steep that floor workers refused to use it and went back to paper binders within a month. The most feature-rich platform is worthless if your users won't adopt it.

Mistake three was not involving end users in the selection. I picked the software myself based on what I thought the organization needed. But I'm not the one using it at 3am when a worker needs to find an SDS quickly. Floor supervisors and production workers should have been part of the evaluation from the start.

What finally worked was choosing a platform that was slightly less feature-rich but significantly more intuitive.

Hey!

A bit of background: I’m about to start my final year of high school in Sweden. At the end of our education, every student has to complete a “Gymnasiearbete,” which is essentially an independent project involving an experiment and a written report related to our program.

I’m in the Natural Science Program and I’m particularly interested in chemistry, so I’d like to synthesize something. I stumbled upon NileRed’s video where he converts DINP from plastic gloves into nordihydrocapsaicin (pure spice) and uses it to make a hot sauce.

My question is if something like this would be appropriate for a school setting. My school is generally willing to purchase required chemicals unless they are highly toxic or carcinogenic (in which case supervision would be required). I’m also unsure whether we have access to equipment like NMR, which would likely be necessary.

For reference, my level of education is roughly equivalent to British A-levels.

Would a project like this be realistic or appropriate, or is it too advanced/unsafe for a high school lab?

If it happens to be too advanced/unsafe, what could be an alternative experiment?

Has anyone else had serious QC issues with Biotage columns?

When loading a colored sample onto the column, you should normally see a nice, round band/ring forming at the top of the stationary phase. Instead, we’re seeing completely irregular filling patterns — the solvent/sample front spreads randomly through the bed, which indicates channeling and poor packing.

The separation quality is terrible and so is reproducibility. Some columns behave differently straight out of the box under identical conditions.

At this point these Biotage columns feel like complete garbage for the price. Has anyone else experienced this?

Would be useful to know whether this is an isolated issue or if their QC has gone downhill generally.

Should the loading look like that?

Another one.

I'm looking for a thick boro mug to drink coffee out of that's quality glass made in USA that has zero chance of lead or anything in it that I can get that's kinda affordable. kind of like those $100 corning lab glass mugs on ebay but not rare and safe to drink coffee out of

any help much appreciated! Asking you guys because I'm guessing you all know where to actually get one 😃

Hi everyone ,

I’m not sure if I should keep going or drop my Chem 107 class. Our final is next week, we have 2 exams and 2 laboratory exams before the end of this month. I currently have a D in the class, I’m scared. I don’t want an F. I hardly have time to study due to assignments after assignments + 40 hours of work + living 38 minutes away from my school.

Should I drop it or keep going? Last day to drop class with a W was beginning of May. I’m not sure what to doooooooo, helppppp