thebean
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Getting into Home Organic Chem
Recently I became more interested in organic chemistry. I have had an interest in general and inorganic for a long time and now want to do something
that will be a little more challenging so I turned to organic syntheses. I have made trichloromethane which is a pretty simple synthesis. But I want
to delve deeper, so if I want to get into OChem, what sort of reagents should I purchase and where can I purchase them?
"You need a little bit of insanity to do great things."
-Henry Rollins
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Praxichys
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Organic chemistry is a huge and diverse field. What kind of glassware do you have? What is your budget?
I would recommend starting with basic things like forming esters and symmetric ethers, salts of carboxylic acids, steam-distillation of oils from
plant material, and isolating caffeine from coffee or beta-carotene from carrots, maybe oxidize some things with permanganate.
With these preparations you will be able to practice things like vacuum filtration, liquid-liquid extraction, desiccating and drying, and fractional
distillation, all of which are essential techniques to more advanced organic chemistry.
You will need more than just beakers and test tubes for the majority of the things mentioned above, but the starting materials are cheap, unregulated,
and widely available in the USA. I think we will need more information about your lab to make good experimental recommendations.
Try looking for undergraduate organic chemistry lab manuals.
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thebean
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Location: Minnesota
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Quote: Originally posted by Praxichys  | Organic chemistry is a huge and diverse field. What kind of glassware do you have? What is your budget?
I would recommend starting with basic things like forming esters and symmetric ethers, salts of carboxylic acids, steam-distillation of oils from
plant material, and isolating caffeine from coffee or beta-carotene from carrots, maybe oxidize some things with permanganate.
With these preparations you will be able to practice things like vacuum filtration, liquid-liquid extraction, desiccating and drying, and fractional
distillation, all of which are essential techniques to more advanced organic chemistry.
You will need more than just beakers and test tubes for the majority of the things mentioned above, but the starting materials are cheap, unregulated,
and widely available in the USA. I think we will need more information about your lab to make good experimental recommendations.
Try looking for undergraduate organic chemistry lab manuals. |
I should mention that I've done almost all of that, other than ester formation, so I'll look into that.
"You need a little bit of insanity to do great things."
-Henry Rollins
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bfesser
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Thread Moved
4-11-2013 at 12:08 |
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