Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Start up chemistry

weschem - 10-11-2012 at 09:01

Hi Im pretty new to amateur chemistry. I have taken general and organic chemistry. Im a biochemistry student and I really want to set up a small home lab, but its not easy because it gets expensive. What are some must haves as far as equipment and chemicals for starting up a home lab?

Hexavalent - 10-11-2012 at 09:14

This has been discussed numerous times on the forum, please UTFSE.

I'll walk you through the basics;

To begin with, I'd recommend getting basic glassware and equipment: a few beakers and Erlenmeyer flasks in different sizes, some test tubes and a rack, a heating source - I'd recommend a spirit burner and a hotplate to begin with - some rubber stoppers, a mercury/spirit thermometer, tubing and some plastic pipettes. This will do you for a while with regards to equipment (did me for about two years), but you will soon need further items such as spot plates, a pestle and mortar, evaporating dishes etc. If you've taken organic, you will probably eventually need standard taper glassware, but you can often make do without them when necessary. Finally, you will find some larger items of gear useful, such as a microwave, a power supply, a magnetic stirring hotplate etc, perhaps even a fume cupboard.

As far as chemicals go, start yourself with inorganic salts, common acids and bases, common organic solvents (EtOH, iPrOH etc.) etc. and you will be able to do a lot experimentally and gain a lot of new knowledge about chemistry. After this, you will find you will need less common/more expensive/unusual reagents/solvents, and that's when you may consider synthesis. Don't forget about all the sources available to you: I'm almost certain that there will be hardware stores, grocery stores etc. near you that will yield many useful reagents: after this, ordering off the net is often the best option.

However, before you begin doing anything at all in your lab, you must consider safety. Get yourself a lab coat, a box of gloves and indirectly-ventilated splash goggles (commonly called cap-vent goggles) and a pack of disposable masks. Find somewhere safe, ideally away from other people, animals, food and drink etc. to experiment, and continually maintain the "contamination and safety risk" mentality. Do this, and you should have no problems.

Good luck, and happy experimenting!

[Edited on 10-11-2012 by Hexavalent]

sargent1015 - 10-11-2012 at 13:22

Haha, Hex, be nice! Our search engine is more often than not, terrible.

Anyways, I loved doing my initial chemistry hunt from store to store. Muriatic acid here, sodium hydroxide here, MEK, Toluene, etc. That was by far my favorite part of getting started, just seeing all of the chemicals in everyday products.

I personally love distillations (the set-up just looks like intense Chemistry is happening :) ), so I would recommend investing in one of these. They are not cheap, but then you will be able to do a lot of organic syntheses. Plus, the condenser doubles as a reflux condenser! Dual purpose!

weschem - 10-11-2012 at 13:50

Sorry I'm new to this forum as well. I'll be sure to check for previous forums first. But thank you it really helped.

vmelkon - 11-11-2012 at 17:16

I think a distillation kit is quite important. I bought mine from eBay.
Besides all that was mentioned, a bunch of glass tubing (3 mm thick) is nice to have. Rubber hose, vinyl hose and polyethene hoses can be bought at the hardware store.

weschem - 11-11-2012 at 17:22

Quote: Originally posted by vmelkon  
I think a distillation kit is quite important. I bought mine from eBay.
Besides all that was mentioned, a bunch of glass tubing (3 mm thick) is nice to have. Rubber hose, vinyl hose and polyethene hoses can be bought at the hardware store.


yeah a distillation kit is what i want the most? i see them usually 150-250. What joint size will allow me to have the most flexibility in any experiment i would want to do?

sargent1015 - 11-11-2012 at 20:04

I personally like 24/40, its a standard size and you can easily fit utensils into it to remove product and clean it out. Only draw back is that it is big and more expensive than the smaller bores.

vmelkon - 12-11-2012 at 08:30

I also like 24/40.
24/40 is what I use since it seems to be more common. This is fine for 100 mL and above synthesis.
Small glassware kits probably are 14/20 which is good for small scale synthesis.

arkallic - 13-11-2012 at 16:01

Yeah... Sadly some distillation kits are a lot of money. But you might be able to save money if you get the individual pieces yourself and not in a kit form. Do some searching. Ebay has some good stuff at times.


[Edited on 14-11-2012 by arkallic]

[Edited on 14-11-2012 by arkallic]

weschem - 18-11-2012 at 22:22

Yeah they are. So far I got the following:
A complete set of erlynnmyers including a 4000ml flask :)
A complete set of beakers
filter flask 1000 mL
750 ml crystalization dish
100mL glass volumetric flask
mortar/pestle 5-6in
(3) wash bottles
(1) roll parafilm
(1) box kimwipes
(250) pasteur pipettes
4-5 inch iron ring
Medium 3 prong clamp
Weigh boats/ weigh paper

All for $150 :) I'm really happy with it. All I really need now is a stirrer hot plate which I've seen for for about 120 online and I saw an ochem lab kit for 270 on laboy. So I'm nearly there.

White Yeti - 23-11-2012 at 10:05

If you're planning on doing organic chemistry, I'd recommend getting a good set of boiling flasks. Multiple necked boiling flasks come in very handy when you have to reflux with the gradual addition of a reactant, or of you want to rig some sort of trap for water or an extra condenser, or hook up a stream of air, or a bubbler, or a thistle tube. If you don't need the extra necks, you can just stopper them. A sep funnel is a good thing to have in various sizes; you don't want to perform a small extraction with ether in a 1L sep funnel for example. A graduated cylinder, an accurate scale, a hotplate and thermometer are also essential for doing anything stoichiometric. Tubes can always come in handy. The key is varying sizes. Glassware that is perfectly suited for one synthesis is probably not optimal for a different reaction. Almost forgot, you can't go far without a condenser and a water pump.

I think the most important thing to remember is that you can't build a lab overnight no matter how hard you try. A home lab is really an agglomeration of matter and incongruous equipment over a long period of time. Some things are essential, the equipment listed above is irreplaceable and indispensable. Other things are nice to have and will save a lot of trouble in the long run. A vacuum pump for example...

Pyro - 23-11-2012 at 11:26

I personally prefer 29/42, the bigger the joint, the easier to clean (even though my dad got his thumb stuck in a 29/42 flask once!)
If you are planning to do distillations you should really have more than one clamp, at least two.
If you are going to buy a hot plate you should get one with stirring function, it's so handy!
you will need some volumetric cylinders, sep funnels etc.