So baby so precious baby flask, he so small he only need one milligram. 100ml rbf for scale.

This advanced synthesis class is soo hard and I feel like I know nothing. Im not even passing by undergraduate standards. I can’t even do this because my brain gets stressed and shuts off. And it’s crazy bc I got a 69/100 on the first exam and someone got a 108/100. How tf am I this dumb? Why don’t I want to learn?

This course goes so fast. I was great at OChem in undergrad now I know nothing and my passion is gone. I think I didn’t actually like OChem at all, I only liked stroking my ego that I could do well in it as an undergraduate student. “The serious learner is very pleased to be confused”, but I literally despise being confused.

Do I need to spend 18 hrs a day 7 days a week to get good at this? Or should I just give up and try to get a job in this abysmal market with only my BSc? I will always view myself as a failure if I don’t get my PhD, but I’m not sure I can mentally handle grad school. Every fiber of my being wants to drop out and wishes I just majored in finance so I could get a decent job and just be done.

I don’t want to bother the other grad students and quite frankly I just don’t feel happy about chemistry anymore. Am I supposed to read the text every day? Is playing video games and (once in a while) going to the club a sign I don’t take this seriously enough?

I recently had an onsite interview for an industry Scientist position. During the technical interview, I was shown a complex organic molecule (attached structure) and asked how I would approach synthesizing it. The interviewer mentioned a synthesis involving approximately 16 steps.

I understand employers want to evaluate a candidate's synthetic chemistry knowledge and problem solving skills, but I was surprised by the complexity of the molecule presented during the interview.

I am curious to hear from scientists working in industry:

1. How common are these types of complex retrosynthesis or total synthesis questions during onsite interviews?
2. Is this a reasonable expectation for a Scientist or Senior Scientist position?
3. Do interviewers expect candidates to propose a complete synthetic route, or are they mainly evaluating their thought process and approach to retrosynthetic analysis?

I would appreciate hearing about your interview experiences, particularly from those working in industrial R&D and synthetic chemistry.

*The company is not from pharmaceutical or biotechnology sector.

Link for the paper: https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5c20700

for those who dont know professor leonard he is a really highly regarded math prof who uploads his lectures on youtube and a lot of students have found him really helpful

ill be talking gen chem 1 next semester and would like to get ahead. r there any figures who have a similar channel to him? or are there any textbooks you recommend?? any resource to learn the material before hand is greatly appreciated

On the left is a pure tungsten ring (99.95% W, almost full density) made by myself. On the right is my platinum ring for comparison.

I've loved corrosion-resistant metals for 34 years, and I actually started reading papers and old books about them back in elementary school. Tungsten is one of my favorite metals, though not as much as tantalum, let alone iridium.
😁

Most people only know tungsten for lightbulbs, its melting point (3410°C), and how heavy it feels . But what really hit me are the extreme, lesser-known places where pure tungsten is used because most metals cannot survive.

For example, at room temperature it barely reacts with cold acids, and even hydrofluoric acid doesn't really hurt it up to 300°C, because it forms a protective fluoride layer on the surface. It can even handle hot 70% sulfuric acid at 190°C, and people use it as an anode in dilute sulfuric acid plating baths without it dissolving.

What's even crazier to me is how it behaves around hot liquid metals. Pure tungsten refuses to dissolve or react in melted gold, silver, or copper, and it can hold super corrosive liquid sodium at 900°C, liquid gallium at 800°C, liquid magnesium at 1000°C, and even liquid lithium up to 1600°C!

Because it stays so clean and stable at extreme heat, factories use pure tungsten crucibles to grow sapphire crystals at over 2000°C. So nearly zero impurities get into the crystal. They also put pure tungsten electrodes directly inside melted quartz glass, where almost any other metal would melt or ruin the glass with bubbles. And in space rockets, cesium-ion engines use pure tungsten because it can survive corrosive cesium gas at 1900°C, while space nuclear generators use it to hold radioactive UO2 fuel at 1400°C for years!!!

One thing I always have to explain to people is the difference between pure tungsten and "Tungsten Gold". Almost every "tungsten" ring you see online is actually tungsten carbide (WC) mixed with nickel or cobalt, because pure tungsten is super brittle at room temperature.

I’m lucky enough to have not broken any of my good borosilicate glass as of now, but I just broke a normal drinking glass. I know boiling chips are very cheap, or I can just get some sand and acid wash it, or use a broken mug, etc.

But given I’m going to have to toss this glass anyway, could I use it if I smashed it down to pebble sized pieces? If not, why not?

As a completely hypothetical post and nothing to do with current events, i’ve heard that alkaline solutions can chemically neutralise 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile.

Could someone explain :
- If it’s true, how does the reaction function. (I have a first years uni chemistry knowledge level so in as much detail as you like)

- What solutions of common household items could be used to make an effective alkaline solution.

- If a sealed environment, like inside a traffic cone with the solution poured on from the top, is effective enough to neutralise the CS pellets.

- Does this just work with CS, or does it also work with other lachrymatory agents (like CN).

and if possible, any other suggestions or better ways to deal with these types of agents that just happen to spawn in randomly in my city.

(and yes im aware it’s not a gas, it’s a volatile solvent)

I bought these books a few years ago, because i was interested in a deeper dive into psychedelic substances because i found that interessting. Can anyone tell something about the book and their feelings and impressions about it who have read it? Thank you so much that would be great.

Ask the r/chemistry intelligentsia your research/technical questions. This is a great way to reach out to a broad chemistry network about anything you are curious about or need insight with and for professionals who want to help with topics that they are knowledgeable about.

So if you have any questions about reactions not working, optimization of yields or anything else concerning your current (or future) research, this is the place to leave your comment.

If you see similar topics of people around r/chemistry please direct them to this weekly thread where they hopefully get the help that they are looking for.

We cannot get our bulk tank filled, and apparently there is a force majeure that has been in place since mid August. We were supposedly notified (our corporate office was at least, according to the supplier).

For a short period of time as a computational chemist, I would rather write bash script to run stuff than doing chemistry. Maybe someone, somewhere has already done this too. But, I decided to just share it on Github.

I am trying to view some molecules in Molview.com and trying to make big hexagonal ones but I am never able to make one bigger than a cycle of 6 atoms.
How can I create one and does one exist in real life?

Are these chemicals dangerous? Have I been breathing in the debris this whole time?

Does anyone have any memes about Neon? I am giving a presentation about it and am trying to find some funny memes in there. I have scoured the internet, but found no good ones. Hoping the reddit chemistry community has some in their back pocket !

Thanks in advance!

I'm an MSc student exploring my options—as of now I'm very interested in traditional synthetic approaches and CADD. But the idea to pick enzymes to do some of the more rigorous work sounds very fascinating, even if I have no practical experience in that.

I believe fragrances, candles, plug in air fresheners, room sprays all possibly contain phthalates. There’s all this talk about phthalates being toxic and how they affect the human body negatively let’s just say.

Why did you get a PhD? I am curious and looking for inspiration. Do you absolutely love chemistry? Is that the only way? All answers welcome :)

I’m really at my absolute breaking point and on the verge of quitting. I started a Master's program in chemistry with a different Bachelor's background, and my previous school’s organic chemistry teaching was a total disaster. The professor used a "flipped learning" technique that resulted in most of the class failing, after which they just lowered the passing criteria so the rest of us barely scraped by.

Now, in my Master's, I’ve had to take Bachelor-level organic chemistry courses because the Master's-level stuff is absolute Greek to me. The problem is, I still don't understand anything. The basic introductory course isn't even until next year, but I’m required to pass an advanced organic chemistry course before that just to take Master's courses. My graduation is already going to be delayed.

I am trying so hard, but nothing is sticking. I try to read a chapter of the textbook thoroughly, but it feels like there aren't enough hours in the day. I read so slowly, and this mental block just makes everything worse. To be clear: I don't have a learning disability, and my GPA in other subjects—like analytical chemistry—is actually really good.

I do the exercises, and I even went as far as hiring private tutors. The first one smelled like stale alcohol and understood nothing, and my current one spends 60 minutes on a single problem and has to Google every second question.

I am so desperate. Nowadays, just opening the textbook makes me start crying. My brain is completely blocked, and I'm seriously on the verge of changing my major.

I don't want to believe that I'm just someone who can't learn organic chemistry, but I just can't take it anymore... sobbing...I've tried going through the basics on my own, but the second I have to think about reaction mechanisms at the electron level, I just freeze and can't do it.

Please, any advice or perspective would mean the world right now. I feel completely lost. A good YouTube-channel recommendations are also welcome.

Has AI affected your line of work or research a lot, like in math and software engineering, or you feel like this is one of the fields which is highly agnostic to being taken over by AI?

The beaches of southern California are pretty rich in magnetite. Ever since I was a kid, I've loved the probably-a-low-key-Autism-symptom of collecting & refining the rich black grains with magnets, by hand. But we never really *did* anything with it 🤷

And then my GF asked what COULD we do with it ... So we bought some aluminum powder, potassium permanganate, and magnesium chips on Amazon, and made thermite.

It took some finagling to get it started, but gawdam did it work well when we did. And now we wanna make some cool shit, and trying sand casting with it.

The magnetite is super easy to collect... I can get about 5-10lbs per hour, pure enough to ignite, just sitting on the beach with a big magnet. Zero hassle.

But aluminum powder costs money. Ball mills are too noisy, so I'm gonna try a food processor and a 325-mesh lab screen, and see if we can't make some of that.