Sciencemadness Discussion Board

What are some useful reagents everyone should have?

Cou - 21-1-2015 at 18:56

Things like sulfuric acid and sodium hydroxide, which are used for many applications

Zephyr - 21-1-2015 at 19:11

Especially for starting out, copper sulfate is great; its easily accessible, and you can make many great copper compounds with it. Other useful reagents include hydrochloric acid, sodium hydrogen carbonate, and any transition metal salts usually make interesting compounds.

j_sum1 - 21-1-2015 at 19:28

A bit depends on what your chemistry focus is and what you are trying to do. It also depends on what equipment you have, what purity you require, whether you are limited to OTC sources and so on. It also depends on what OTC means in your area and what volumes you are considering.
This question has been asked many times before and there is really no standard answer.

For me, I was fortunate to pick up some half-bottles of expired chemicals from a school lab. I have placed a couple of chemical orders but am mostly restricting myself to OTC chemicals.

I would not like to do without copper sulfate, HCl, NaOH, NaHCO3, NaCO3, deionised water, aluminium foil, and... well quite a few others.

Have to fly -- meeting to go to. I might finish my thought later.

greenlight - 21-1-2015 at 21:57

I agree with J sum1, it depends what field of chemistry you are interested in and what synthesis you will be performing.
Some common chemicals to get and some of my most useful reagents include:
* Sulfuric acid
* Nitric acid
* Hydrochloric acid
* Acetic acid
* Acetone
* Aluminum
* Ammonia
* Barium carbonate
* Calcium chloride
* Ethanol
* Methanol
* Hydrogen peroxide
* Potassium chloride
* Potassium nitrate
* Sodium bicarbonate
* Sodium hydroxide
* Sodium hypochlorite
* Strontium carbonate
* Distilled water
* Xylene

j_sum1 - 22-1-2015 at 00:10

Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1  
A bit depends on what your chemistry focus is and what you are trying to do. It also depends on what equipment you have, what purity you require, whether you are limited to OTC sources and so on. It also depends on what OTC means in your area and what volumes you are considering.
This question has been asked many times before and there is really no standard answer.

For me, I was fortunate to pick up some half-bottles of expired chemicals from a school lab. I have placed a couple of chemical orders but am mostly restricting myself to OTC chemicals.

I would not like to do without copper sulfate, HCl, NaOH, NaHCO3, NaCO3, deionised water, aluminium foil, and... well quite a few others.

Have to fly -- meeting to go to. I might finish my thought later.

And I agree with Greenlight. Btw, by his definition, mine is probably not a useful lab (yet). It is still early days and I have not yet got a full set of acids. My H2SO4 comes from copper sulfate and is a bit unclean. This limits its usefulness somewhat.

I generally concur with Greenlight's list. I am not sure that strontium carbonate is an essential though.

Missing from his list and I think pretty much essential are
Mg ribbon, ingots, powder or lumps
Potassium permanganate
Magnesium sulfate
Cobalt chloride
pH indicators
zinc
sulfur
copper metal (I use electrical wire)
potassium chlorate
sodium thiosulfate


Let me emphasise the need for large quantities of
sodium carbonate or sodium bicarbonate or sodium hydroxide
Essential for neutralising spills and precipitating solutions to a safer form for disposal

Acetic acid or citric acid -- essential for neutralising alkaline spills

Acetone -- untold uses as a solvent
Isopropyl alcohol. (I need to get some.)
Other organic solvents for cleaning stuff up. Xylene or toluene. Methylated spirits is useful too.
A decent tap water supply. (Mine is rainwater so that is nice)

Beyond that, it really does depend what you are up to.

woelen - 22-1-2015 at 00:30

You could also read this webpage and the link in it about which chemicals to buy. It is geared towards inorganic chemistry, just as all of the above suggestions:

http://woelen.homescience.net/science/chem/misc/homelab.html

I formulated some general guidelines for buying chemicals and wrote something about specific classes of chemicals which you should have.

j_sum1 - 22-1-2015 at 01:56

woelen, that is a great treatment of basic chemicals. I read the whole thing through. I will have to consult it again before my next chemical order.

greenlight - 22-1-2015 at 06:53

On second thought J Sum is right, maybe Strontium nitrate isn't an essential chemical for a general laboratory, its more of an essential chem for someone interested in making pyrotechnic compositions.;)

[Edited on 22-1-2015 by greenlight]

AJKOER - 22-1-2015 at 08:04

For completeness, pure water including deionized water, distilled water, ice,...

It is somewhat amazing what modern man takes for granted :o.

[Edit] Greenlight did list distilled water, but not other forms.

[Edited on 22-1-2015 by AJKOER]

Hawkguy - 22-1-2015 at 09:09

Here's some more; Barium Chloride, Silicon Dioxide, Ammonia, Ammonium Persulfate, Sulfur, Potassium Oxalate Monohydrate, ASA, Magnesium Sulfate, and Iodine/ an Alkali Iodide. The Barium Chloride isn't really mandatory, but is a wonderful addition as it can be used with the K Oxalate to make many pure, and useful acids.

Volanschemia - 23-1-2015 at 22:25

The chemicals I couldn't pursue my hobby without would be:

Sodium Hydroxide
Sodium Acetate
Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate
Sodium Carbonate
Sodium Metasilicate
Sodium Thiosulphate
Potassium Hydroxide
Potassium Permanganate
Potassium Thiocyanate
Potassium Nitrate
Potassium Chloride
Potassium Chlorate
Potassium Iodide
Manganese(IV) Oxide
Sulphuric Acid
Nitric Acid
Hydrochloric Acid
Hydrogen Peroxide
Distilled Dihydrogen Monoxide
Copper(II) Sulphate
Phenolphthalein

Fairly long I know, but I experiment in a wide range of chemistry fields.


[Edited on 24-1-2015 by TheAustralianScientist]

Dan Vizine - 24-1-2015 at 08:53

j_sum1 said it all. It depends entirely on your passion. Mine is making high quality samples of pure elements.

I need conc. H2SO4, HCL, CaCl2, MgSO4, CH2Cl2, Li, Ca, any H2NNH2 salt, NaOCl, HNO3, Conc. NH3, NaBr, NaCl, mineral oil, Toluene, Na2SO4, molecular sieves, UHP argon, a tank of oxygen, regulators, NaOH (or much better still, KOH), EtOH, 2-PrOH, silicone oil, distilled H2O, good quality Hg, powdered aluminum and acetone.

Reagents I would love to have, because they would make life much easier, but don't yet: EtOAc, hexanes or even 63 - 75 degree P.E., THF, diethylzinc, TiCl4, hydrofluoric acid, ammonium biflouride, and most especially Et2O (my favorite solvent by far, with THF being #2).

My essential equipment: Respirator, full-face mask of Lexan, gloves and more gloves, even including Viton, RB flasks, bubblers, stirring motors (magnetic and overhead), a glovebox, glassblowing torches, condensers, heating mantles, variacs, PID temperature controllers, K thermocouples, a 1200 C furnace, a two-zone tube furnace, vacuum-jacketed distillation head, 2-stage oil-filled vacuum pump, air-compressor, fritted glass funnels, Erlenmeyers with vac. tubulations, hydraulic press, band saw, arc-welder, belt sander, McLeod gauge, multimeter, ceramic fiber insulation, heating tapes, aspirator, Teflon in all shapes and sizes, glass wool, SS wool and a fume trunk.

Due to an excessive "dumpster-diving" passion in my 30's (when the world was less like a police-state), I have an entire 8 X 10 room filled with all shapes and sixes of SS (304 & 316), Maybe 50 lbs of graphite up to 2" thick sheets, huge plates of Aluminum, 1" Plexiglass up to 5' X 3' (wonderful blast shields), huge butyl rubber sheets, gum-rubber sheets, steel sheets, plates and I-beams, vacuum tubing, and even exotic mechanical devices discarded by Praxair (they threw away brand new items as their needs changed, so wasteful it was absolutely mind boggling). Big companies with lots of money seem to care in the slightest, (but they don't want you to get it either, because of the bubonic pox known as lawyers). They threw it into big wheeled trash collectors parked in the hallways which I passed on my way out every night. Bless them. That's where my huge rolls of Alumel, Chromel and thermocouple extension wire, Platinum RTD thermometer with probe, pre-made high-temp furnace plates (coils inside ceramic plates), countless valves, gauges, pre-made heating elements, a water pump, stainless steel tubing and more came from. A steel stamping company dumpster gave me access to hardened steel pressing dies 2" thick and from 6 to 8 inches long/wide and many, many other things. I actually over-collected. I have more than I can ever use before I die. On the flip side, I can do a lot of things without leaving the house, everything I need is usually there, somewhere. Eventually, when I'm a dilapidated fossil, most will go to ebay.

Equipment I would really like to have: TIG/MIG, diffusion or turbo pump, ppm O2 analyzer (in my dreams only, and why I want diethylzinc instead).

Sorry, I guess I strayed a bit in including equipment.




[Edited on 24-1-2015 by Dan Vizine]

j_sum1 - 24-1-2015 at 14:24

When is your yard sale Dan? I'm coming over.

radiance88 - 24-1-2015 at 22:01

Yard sale? Pffft. I would go and live there haha.

I laughed at the mention of "distilled dihydrogen monoxide" in this thread. Most chem newbies would be like... "what the f^*( is THAT?, sounds DANGEROUS!".

But to those in the know.. you just laugh at it.

SimpleChemist-238 - 24-1-2015 at 23:09

Cobalt nitrate is really great along with nitric acid!

The cobalt makes for interesting reaction and color change. My favorite is crystals of cobalt chloride or complexing cobalt chloride with ammonium hydroxide. Very interesting.