Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Group Buying Reagents & Solvents

akok - 26-7-2016 at 03:35

Hello Guys!
I would like to ask if anyone interesting buying bulk quantities of reagents and solvents?
Please specify if you are from Europe or US.
Let's use this Post to through ideas about what do you need! :)

j_sum1 - 26-7-2016 at 03:39

Post also on synthsource. See link beow. It hasn't had much traffic but this what it was designed for.

akok - 26-7-2016 at 03:43

Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1  
Post also on synthsource. See link beow. It hasn't had much traffic but this what it was designed for.

Yes I have seen it but I don't know how much impact has...
Sciencemadness is much more legit forum... :)

j_sum1 - 26-7-2016 at 04:30

Quote: Originally posted by akok  
Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1  
Post also on synthsource. See link below. It hasn't had much traffic but this what it was designed for.

Yes I have seen it but I don't know how much impact has...
Sciencemadness is much more legit forum... :)

Well, synthsource was a spin off from this site and is managed by a member here. It came about as a response to exactly these kinds of requests for buying and selling and group purchases among members.

You are right that it hasn't garnered much interest. But the idea I believe is still a good one -- hence my promotion of it.

Praxichys - 26-7-2016 at 04:31

I run SynthSource. We made it because the owners of ScienceMadness was not comfortable creating a buy/sell/trade subforum, for legal reasons.

I think we all would hate to lose ScienceMadness because of a DEA takedown, which is why I created SynthSource. As far as I know, there are only ScienceMadness members involved with SynthSource, including myself. We have a screening/review process which ensures that sellers on SynthSource are reliable. I can help you get started if you like.

https://www.sciencemadness.org/whisper/viewthread.php?tid=30...
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=7083

akok - 26-7-2016 at 04:56

Quote: Originally posted by Praxichys  
I run SynthSource. We made it because the owners of ScienceMadness was not comfortable creating a buy/sell/trade subforum, for legal reasons.

I think we all would hate to lose ScienceMadness because of a DEA takedown, which is why I created SynthSource. As far as I know, there are only ScienceMadness members involved with SynthSource, including myself. We have a screening/review process which ensures that sellers on SynthSource are reliable. I can help you get started if you like.

https://www.sciencemadness.org/whisper/viewthread.php?tid=30...
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=7083

Thank you for the reply and the info about Synthsource! I would try it! Maybe I could help to transfer it in a better portal software and server.

j_sum1 - 26-7-2016 at 05:00

The biggest thing it needs is more patronage.

Good luck on organising a group purchase of solvents. You should get some takers.
(Unfortunately not me this time. My lab is out of action at the moment and I am in Aus -- which attracts much greater shipping costs and does not have quite the same population base to support something like this.)

Praxichys - 26-7-2016 at 06:39

Yes, we had a very successful group buy of various alcohols last year. Several liters each of ACS grade 1-pentanol, benzyl alcohol, cyclohexanol, isobutyl alcohol, n-butyl, n-propyl, and n-octyl alcohols were distributed among 6 or 7 members.

We also had a great group phthalic anhydride purchase, Loptr has been selling sodium, I sold or traded about 30 pounds of mercury, and zts16 bought a bunch of beaker in bulk and has been shipping them all over. Dr. Bob has been selling everyone glassware, and Tom Holm of Elemental Scientific hangs around here to give out holiday coupon codes.

I can get access to pretty much any chemical you want, and I am willing to repackage and distribute those chemicals for the cost of shipping plus your share of the bulk purchase. The only limitation is HazMat shipping, which I am not licensed to do. I can usually ship small amounts of hazardous materials under CFR exemptions (like individual pounds of mercury) but keep in mind that I will always obey federal laws. However, there are probably 150 chemicals every beginner should have that are easily shippable without regulation, and I would be happy to provide those at-cost should anyone be interested in a bulk purchase.

I also offer lab services for custom synthesis if you're after some specific things like aminohalobenzenes, esters, simple amines and amide salts, etc. I can almost always beat the chemical companies in price, although I cannot guarantee purity beyond technical grade. Of course, for the amateur experimenter tech grade products are usually sufficient and are extremely cost-effective. I also accept trades, and I can really cut the cost if you send me the starting materials.

[Edited on 26-7-2016 by Praxichys]

Loptr - 26-7-2016 at 08:36

Quote: Originally posted by Praxichys  
Yes, we had a very successful group buy of various alcohols last year. Several liters each of ACS grade 1-pentanol, benzyl alcohol, cyclohexanol, isobutyl alcohol, n-butyl, n-propyl, and n-octyl alcohols were distributed among 6 or 7 members.

We also had a great group phthalic anhydride purchase, Loptr has been selling sodium, I sold or traded about 30 pounds of mercury, and zts16 bought a bunch of beaker in bulk and has been shipping them all over. Dr. Bob has been selling everyone glassware, and Tom Holm of Elemental Scientific hangs around here to give out holiday coupon codes.

I can get access to pretty much any chemical you want, and I am willing to repackage and distribute those chemicals for the cost of shipping plus your share of the bulk purchase. The only limitation is HazMat shipping, which I am not licensed to do. I can usually ship small amounts of hazardous materials under CFR exemptions (like individual pounds of mercury) but keep in mind that I will always obey federal laws. However, there are probably 150 chemicals every beginner should have that are easily shippable without regulation, and I would be happy to provide those at-cost should anyone be interested in a bulk purchase.

I also offer lab services for custom synthesis if you're after some specific things like aminohalobenzenes, esters, simple amines and amide salts, etc. I can almost always beat the chemical companies in price, although I cannot guarantee purity beyond technical grade. Of course, for the amateur experimenter tech grade products are usually sufficient and are extremely cost-effective. I also accept trades, and I can really cut the cost if you send me the starting materials.

[Edited on 26-7-2016 by Praxichys]


You say that there are around 150 chemicals that are common across the board for beginners. It might be beneficial to get those listed and in consensus, and then make a spot for them on SynthSource. A lot of people just don't know where to begin, or what synthesis to do, and we always ask the question "what do you have?". Well, if they have the "SM Starter Kit", then we know what they have on hand and are capable of!

And yes, I still have quite a bit of Sodium metal. In fact, some should be going out today to one of our fine members.

[Edited on 26-7-2016 by Loptr]

Texium - 26-7-2016 at 09:41

I talked to Amos a while back actually about making an SM starter kit, and we compiled a list of stuff that would be good to put in it:

Copper sulfate pentahydrate - 75g
Basic copper carbonate - 15g
Nickel sulfate hexahydrate - 15g
Ferrous sulfate heptahydrate - 15g
Iron(III) oxide - 15g
Manganese dioxide - 35g
Potassium dichromate - 25g
Sodium metabisulfite - 35g
Sodium hydroxide - 50g
Potassium iodide - 10g
Potassium nitrate - 50g
Oxalic acid dihydrate - 35g
Phthalic anhydride - 25g
Iodine crystals - 3g
Phenol crystals - 3g
Methanol, technical grade - 100mL
Ethanol, 95% - 100mL
n-Propanol - 25mL
n-Butanol - 25mL
Benzyl alcohol - 25mL
Urea - 50g
Silver nitrate - 2g
Zinc sulfate monohydrate - 25g
Manganese sulfate monohydrate - 25g
Glacial acetic acid - 50mL
Lithium carbonate - 10g
Calcium carbonate - 25g
Sodium dichloroisocyanurate - 15g
Sodium bromide - 25g
Potassium permanganate - 15g
Ascorbic acid - 25g
Vanadium pentoxide - 2g
Sulfuric acid, 93% tech grade (if requested, for extra charge) - 25 mL
Nitric acid, ~70% (if requested, for extra charge) - 25 mL
Ammonia, 10% (if requested, for extra charge)

3 test tubes with caps
150 mL beaker
250 mL beaker

Obviously, people who buy it would have to work small scale until they decide to buy larger quantities of reagents that they want to work with more, but it could be very good as an introduction. A lot of thought was put into making it as affordable as possible while packing in as many useful reagents as we could.
Quote: Originally posted by Loptr  
And yes, I still have quite a bit of Sodium metal. In fact, some should be going out today to one of our fine members.
;) I just sent off your beakers.

[Edited on 7-26-2016 by zts16]

Praxichys - 26-7-2016 at 11:25

I like the idea of that list. I have almost 1000 small (120mL) polyethylene containers on hand that I use on a regular basis for chemical distribution. I can definitely put together such a kit from things I currently own, and we might be able to raffle it off to promote SynthSource or something.

I'd be fine offering up the basics on SynthSource on a permanent basis. It would be easy to just make a list at a price point. Offer $2 worth of everything, and shipping is $12 up to 12 items, $18 up to 24 items, $24 up to 36 items, etc. You could pick a custom packing list, or choose one of the starter kits. I could also introduce $4 items which would be like 3x the weight of the $2 item. You could get that entire list for the price of a decent video game, plus shipping.

Texium - 26-7-2016 at 12:02

Yeah, that sounds really good. I was also thinking that there could be different kits, like an inorganic one, an organic one, and a complete one (which would basically be the full list in my last post). The amounts could of course be adjusted depending on what's available.

A very economical way of packing dry chemicals for these kits would be to use small plastic reclosable bags. The Container Store sells a lot of different size ones that are made of much more durable plastic than normal ziploc bags. The smallest size that they have (you know, "drug dealer bags") are only $0.89 per package of ten (and they come stored inside of a larger bag, so really you get 11 bags per pack!). The bags are far cheaper than any other container available, and also more compact for shipping.

Another idea that Amos and I had, which I think would work especially well with these kits, was to write a little book of reactions for beginners to try. It would be very helpful to beginners to be able to buy a set of chemicals that go along with a book chock full of real chemistry experiments to try that utilize everything in the kit.

[Edited on 7-26-2016 by zts16]

j_sum1 - 26-7-2016 at 15:19

This is sounding like the beginnings of a great project. I would have been in boots and all if it was available two years ago when I started. However, I now have an average of 500g of most things on that list. (Missing GAA, vanadium pentoxide, ascorbic acid, phenol and benzyl alcohol.)
With the addition of a booklet of experiments (or, realistically a pdf) and a small amount of glassware, we would have a modern chemistry set reminiscent of days of old. That would be pretty cool.

This might be worth its own thread to thrash out some details, refine the list and write up some experiments.

Texium - 26-7-2016 at 15:42

I started a new thread for it here: https://www.sciencemadness.org/whisper/viewthread.php?tid=67...
From now on, discussion of the starter kit will go there while this thread can be used to discuss group buys in general and SynthSource.