Infamous_Reddy
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Basic Chemicals and Glassware acquisition
Hello!
I have done very basic home chemistry (like making calcium acetate out of eggshells, extracting limonene from oranges, etc.) for the past 6
months and now, I have decided to buy proper glassware and chemicals. I am 13 and I do have a basic understanding of stoichiometry and other basic
stuff.
I am curious as to what are the most basic reagents that one should have to do chemistry. I know that new chemicals and glassware are to
bought depending on the project but I am asking about the most basic ones. Please be kind.
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Jenks
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I started studying chemistry when I was about 13 myself. That was around 1980. Back then, simple inorganic chemicals and glassware could still be
bought at the neighborhood hardware store - basically what you would find in a chemistry kit. To go beyond that, I ordered supplies from a company in
Wisconsin called Hagenow Laboratories, known today as Elemental Scientific: https://www.elementalscientific.net/index.html
Most experiments will require basic glassware - beakers, Erlenmeyer flasks, test tubes. If you have a way to buy things from eBay or Amazon, that will
meet most of your needs, the rest coming from your local grocery, drug or hardware store. On eBay or Amazon you can find an inexpensive scale - less
than $10 - that will allow you to weigh ichemicals. A chemistry kit would give you a starting point of basic chemicals and equipment you can build on,
like a scoop and alcohol lamp. As you work through experiments, it should become clear what you still need. This is how I still work, as there has
never been a point where I had collected everything I would ever need.
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Texium
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Elemental Scientific may not be the best recommendation as they are currently in the process of liquidating their business: https://www.sciencemadness.org/whisper/viewthread.php?tid=15...
What chemicals are available OTC depends largely on where you are located, so my advice is based on my experience in the US. If you live somewhere
else it may or may not apply. The absolute “essentials” I would say, are a strong acid: HCl is the easiest and least expensive to get (hardware or
pool store “muriatic acid” is 10 M HCl), but sulfuric acid is better, since it’s non volatile and can be used to make most other acids from
their salts. You may be able to find it as drain opener. Personally I’ve only found it at Ace Hardware as “Rooto” brand drain opener. It’s 98%
concentrated and reasonably pure. Though the cost of a gallon is ~3-4 times more than a gallon of HCl, you’re getting a lot more
moles-for-your-money with it, so it’s a great investment. Next up is a strong base. Probably sodium hydroxide. This is also commonly available as a
drain opener. Don’t bother with the liquid kind, because it’s impossible (literally) to purify it. In solid form you’ll find two types: pure
sodium hydroxide- “Roebic” brand is a good one, or the type that’s mixed with aluminum turnings. Obviously the pure stuff is preferable, but
members who have only been able to find the kind with aluminum have reported success with simply screening it through an appropriate sieve to separate
it. Of course, you can also just buy some online. Duda Diesel is an amazing source for inexpensive bulk chemicals if you’re in the US. I’ve bought
formic acid, glacial acetic acid, and sodium nitrite from them, and they sell many others as well.
If you haven’t already tried any copper chemistry, that’s a great thing to get into. Copper is the best metal for a beginner to experiment with
for a number of reasons: its chemistry mostly follows the rules you learn about in school, it’s relatively inexpensive, its compounds come in a wide
array of beautiful colors, it has two easily accessible oxidation states, and it isn’t especially toxic. Every other transition metal is deficient
on one of more of these points. You can either buy copper sulfate at the hardware store (or online) as root killer. It’s usually quite pure as is,
but you can also recrystallize it if you want to, and that’s a fun project in its own right. You can also start with copper metal if you have access
to a lot of copper scrap. Copper wire is ideal because it will be extremely pure.
Hopefully that’s enough to get you started. It would be great if you could at least share what country you’re from as that will help with
recommendations of vendors.
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Jenks
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 I'm sorry to hear that. The end of an era. Next thing, Radio Shack will close up!
 I'm in the United States, so please let us know, Infamous_Reddy, if you live
somewhere else.
Regarding Texium's advice, while I did use Hagenow Laboratories to buy things like nitric and sulfuric acids, all their chemicals were sold in 1oz,
4oz and 1lb sizes so that there was a limit to the eventual disposal problem. So if you buy a large amount of a chemical, more than you expect to use
up, consider how you will eventually get rid of it.
This seems like a great time to talk about safety. The main hazards that come to mind are fire, burns (particularly to the eyes), toxic or caustic
fumes and being poisoned. Even if you work with innocuous chemicals, you will want to be prepared in case of fire since heating stuff is so common in
chemistry. There should be a working smoke detector in the area where you work, and a fire extinguisher should be nearby. I also like to keep a bucket
of sand around in case of a small fire not calling for the extinguisher. Even if you don't wear goggles all the time, you should have some available
for when working with caustic chemicals or things that might spatter, especially if you don't wear glasses. Likewise, even if you don't wear rubber
gloves all the time, they should be available for when you are handling something that could chemically burn your skin. There are also
high-temperature silicone gloves, used in cooking, that would help you handle hot equipment.
A couple large pieces of equipment in school laboratories are a fume hood and an eye wash fountain. A box fan in a window or an efficient stove
exhaust fan can work as a fume hood. The main thing is to realize when your reaction will need ventilation so you can plan accordingly. The eye-wash
fountain is just a double water fountain with a shower attached. As long as you plan to be able to get to a bathroom in case you spill something
caustic on yourself, that should do. Eventually you will get something on yourself, typically acid or base, that starts to burn. When that happens,
get the skin under water and soak it off. Remember that strong bases will make your skin feel slippery. If you feel that, wash it off immediately.
Having people around who can help takes out a lot of the risk.
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Infamous_Reddy
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Thank you very much for your suggestions.
I am from India. Please let me know if any reliable vendors are available in China or India. I personally had a few experiences working with copper
making Copper Citrate, Copper Hydroxide, etc. Also, I would like to know the optimum heating source for heating substances as an amateur. I presently
use a stove in my kitchen, but it is far from ideal. Is getting a bunsen burner or an expensive hot plate better? Again, is it better to use Ph-paper
or get a Ph-meter?
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Texium
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Posts: 4618
Registered: 11-1-2014
Location: Salt Lake City
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Well, I'm sorry that all of my suggestions for acquiring chemicals are not relevant to you then. I personally know nothing about chemical availability
in India, but we do have a well-established Indian member here, vibbzlab, who also has a very active YouTube channel. From the looks of it, he seems to have access to quite a lot of stuff. You might want to
send him a U2U message to see if he has some advice about where to buy chemicals there.
As for a heat source, an inexpensive hotplate would be best to start out. It's safer and easier to control than an open flame, and it lets you get
your chemistry out of the kitchen. A bunsen burner or even a blowtorch or a gas camping stove can be useful to have for when you need an extra-hot
heat source, like for melting lead, or performing really high temperature pyrolysis or fusion reactions. For most things they're overkill and
unnecessarily dangerous though, and you'll want to stick to the hotplate.
I've never owned a pH meter, but I've used them in academic labs, and I don't think they're worth it for a home lab. Meters that are good enough to be
useful are expensive, and they require regular calibration with standard buffer solutions in order to maintain them, which is annoying. pH paper on
the other hand is great to have around, because it's super inexpensive and is a fast qualitative diagnostic. Rarely in home chemistry do you have to
know the pH of a solution to a greater degree of precision than a whole unit.
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