/r/homechemistry

Photograph via snooOG

A subreddit for building your own lab at home and doing chemistry in it.

Please try and keep things professional!

I would like to see this site grow into helping one another explore chemistry, since nothing teaches us better than hands on experimentation, but given this is a new subreddit it has the potential to go very bad.

First and foremost, illicit drugs and illegal substances will not be synthesized here. Common reagents that may be controlled I don't mind as much.
Other than that, have fun and help us all out!

Chemicals that may put you on a DEA watch list, pay cash if you can, or synthesize your own.

List of commonly available chemicals thanks to /u/zyks

Search consumer products by chemicals they contain (thx to /u/gfrnk86)

http://www.sciencemadness.org/ Courtesy of /u/MrBurd

Subscripts and Superscripts are in use

Arrows can be copied and pasted from below:

Equilibrium arrow: ⇌

Right arrow: →

Related Subreddits

/r/chemistry

/r/chemicalreactiongifs

/r/homechemistry

11,317 Subscribers

4

Do you use a retort? Why or why not?

A classic piece of glassware but does anyone sue them anymore?

7 Comments
2024/11/04
18:20 UTC

1

Have you heard of chemists washing glassware in a portable washing machine?

4 Comments
2024/11/03
17:32 UTC

10

Making Deadly Potassium Cyanide

7 Comments
2024/11/03
07:50 UTC

0

Heating mantle for $200

I’m in the market for a heating mantle for $200 or less I’d like it to be hot enough for distilling sulfuric acid

9 Comments
2024/11/03
03:21 UTC

1

Ground glass adapters for flasks?

Hi all,

I find that I'm using things like ground glass funnels and stoppers frequently but most of my flasks do not have a ground glass top. Is there any way to "add" some sort of ground glass adapter to my glassware so I don't have to buy more?

2 Comments
2024/10/29
15:00 UTC

0

Chemistry help

If anyone need chemistry doubts, homework and examination help in chemistry contact me..

2 Comments
2024/10/23
18:45 UTC

0

How do you feel about As2O3 being accessible to consumers in the United States?

There's a website where a company sells As2O3 to U.S buyers with apparently no restrictions.

25 Comments
2024/10/21
22:22 UTC

3

Measuring nitrogen in "waste water".

How possible is it to measure the total nitrogen content of sewerage on a DIY level?

I'd like to monitor the total N content of samples if treated sewerage as it comes out of a small treatment plant (producing under 10m^3 a day).

I'm interested in concentrations of Ammoniacal Nitrogen between ~15mg/l to ~100mg/L (aiming for the lower end).
I'd like accuracy of ~1mg/L (for low concentration samples) but 5mg/L would still be useful.

Expertise / Budget.... I did some chemistry including analytical chemistry to uni level last century so I know what a burette etc is. Budget - I've no allocated budget from our equivalent of a HOA but don't mind spending a bit to add to the toy collection.

Suggestions or suggestions about where else to look / ask very welcome.

1 Comment
2024/10/20
08:04 UTC

2

Suffering from doxycycline pill-induced esophagitis & duodenitis… do any reliable pH testers for food exist?

Hello, unsure where to post this question, but I decided to post here just in case.

I’ve lost so much weight (inadvertently) in under a week and am wanting to get back to work ASAP and in order to do that, I need to be able to eat. I’m having trouble finding foods other than scrambled eggs that don’t make me feel like I’ve eaten broken glass or liquid fire.

I’ve been driving myself crazy looking up the pH of all kinds of foods and so many of the supposedly esophagitis-friendly foods are not working for me at all!

Do any USA civilian-accesible and reliable pH testers/testing kits exist under absolutely maximum $30?

##Edit: Are any commercially available pH meters worth it?

Thanks so much in advance!!!!

3 Comments
2024/10/17
22:45 UTC

5

Any way to preserve milk? Must remain liquid, does not need to be edible

Marked nsfw because of mentions of breasts. I wasn't sure if it would be considered NSFW and decided being a weirdo for marking it as such was better than having the post taken down.

I know this is a strange ask. I am working on making breast milk jewelry for myself as well as a side hustle. I know how to turn the milk into a preserved powder to mix into resin, but I had the idea to make hollow pendants that could be filled with a small amount of breast milk, remaining liquid and mobile in the pendant. Obviously if I were to use straight milk, it would curdle and separate quickly.

My only caveat is that the liquid be made from the milk. It can include additional ingredients, I just don't want it to be something that only looks like milk. The idea behind the keepsake is to preserve the memory of the breastfeeding journey.

The method of creating a powder is mixing the milk with plaster of Paris, which I don't believe will say suspended in a carrier liquid. If I'm wrong please let me know.

22 Comments
2024/10/15
03:32 UTC

2

Book/website recommendation for pyrotechnics or special effects?

I have a somewhat theoretical interest in the topic in that I don't have any particular plan to actually practice any of it, but I would love to be inspired to do so.

In the context of LARP and general garden experimentation, I'd love to learn about creating visual effects such as colorful flames, smoke, flashes and whatever is related to it, such as wicks and other ignition methods. And ideally, the kind of stuff that veers towards the safer side. Nothing that could accidentally blow me up.

I have no interest in buying magic and theater props, because 90% of the fun for me is in the process of synthesizing it.

Is there a ressource that you could recommend? It should be geared towards the amateur without access to restricted, chemical supplies. If it's feasible and required to make some of the precursors, even better!

Maybe there's a YouTuber that does something of the sort?

Thanks!

1 Comment
2024/10/14
08:43 UTC

16

Tried making Copper hydroxide

Left it overnight and some more precipitate appeared

9 Comments
2024/10/11
14:27 UTC

20

Did myself with the sequel to water so that you don’t have to.

20 Comments
2024/10/10
19:22 UTC

1

Are thermometers compatible across brands?

Hi all,

I picked up a PMC Dataplate (hotplate/stirrer), and either it's not getting as hot as it should or is losing about half the heat generated to the air (compared to a thermometer I left in the beaker).

I was thinking of getting a plug-in 3-pin DIN thermometer online to use with it. If the plugs match, is this a generally safe thing to try for the hot plate?

2 Comments
2024/10/07
04:09 UTC

2

How to "clean" A3 sieves so that they don't produce an emulsion of bits of sieves whenever you shake a container a bit much?

I have painstakingly (frac.) distilled a bunch of ethanol to make esters later, I've dried it and re-distilled it a couple of times until my fractionating column's thermometer ensured me (by watching the temperature throughout) that I was indeed at 100% ethanol or close to that. I think I can't do better than this anyways (I could improve my yield though 😅), better chemist's than me probably could.

Anyways I was wondering how to store my precious anhydrous ethanol.

I think storing it over some A3 sieves could be a good idea because of the water that can stil get in everytime the bottle is opened.

My only issue with that is that sieves (at least mine) tend to leave off dust sized particles in the liquid if shaken too vigorously. They decant fast, so it's not a huge deal, but is there a way to prevent this? Like to "wash" the sieves? Not with water obviously. Would it make sense to try and clean them sieves up with acetone for instance and then evap' the acetone before using the sieves for storage?

2 Comments
2024/10/06
17:44 UTC

2

How to make DIY foam from packing peanuts?

Hi, I would like to make a sort of solid foam that I can make and pour into a mold. I have a bunch of packing peanuts that I could use, and I want to be able to pour it into a mold and have it solidify and hold its shape afterwards.

The purpose of this is to fill in some gaps inside some handle extensions for yard equipment that I fashioned out of PVC pipes, so it also can't be something that dissolves PVC or plastic bags (like ziploc bags or sandwich bags, since I am using those to protect the wooden handles.

Can anyone help me out?

16 Comments
2024/09/28
21:05 UTC

5

Exhaustless fume hood?

Hi, because of the configuration of my place it is pretty hard to install a fume hood and dump the fumes outside without having the neighbors either dying or complaining about, I'd like to avoid both.

Is there a reasonably safe fume hood design that I could build which would filter the air in a closed loop?

Something with like, filters, maybe a succession of water scrubbers with different reagents in each one to each neutralize one specific class of toxic byproducts...

Sounds to me like this would be possible in theory, but my main concern would be: how can you be sure you're not gonna end up with such a weird mixture in your scrubber(s) after a while that they themselves could start reacting and killing you?

How feasible would this be?

18 Comments
2024/09/28
19:19 UTC

1

Things to do with acetone?

Hello, I've been wanting to try really anything chemistry related and I heard that you could dissolve Styrofoam in acetone which sounds fun but I was just wondering if there was anything else I could do with acetone. Not the brightest on this whole shibang so any feedback is welcome

34 Comments
2024/09/24
04:03 UTC

0

2 questions

  1. I'm in the UK, is there any place i can get fuming nitric and sulphuric acid from without any type of licence?

  2. Can charcoal for use in black powder be bought or does it have to be made?

18 Comments
2024/09/22
17:40 UTC

2

Checking if this isn’t going to work

I have some calcium ammonium nitrate and some 47% acetic acid that I want to use to make nitric and acetic acid respectively.

Naively one could try adding the acetic to the calcium nitrate and try distilling off nitric acid and then using the dried calcium acetate with sulfuric acid to generate the acetic acid to distill off.

But I suspect that the calcium nitrate will be favored in the first stage and all I’ll get is acetic acid distilled over. Does that sound right?

6 Comments
2024/09/21
21:30 UTC

5

Test Tube Pouch?

Hi all, not sure if anyone will know what I'm looking for, but I'd really love a little pouch that can hold like 5 or 6 test tubes that can clip onto your pants. I'd really like it for gathering small soil samples from my garden and not to have run back and forth inside and out just to place my samples somewhere (ik i could collect them in bags or something but that's plastic waste and i wanna leave out unnecessary steps). I did see plastic cases online but I really want something that will make me feel like a fashionable home scientist.

3 Comments
2024/09/18
21:49 UTC

82

Got hold of a good oil pump recently, now had the time to implement it into my setup

Can reach 0,3 mbar inside the schlenkline quite nicely

13 Comments
2024/09/14
17:19 UTC

0

What do you guys know about 4 Methylpropiophenone

Do we have any indian chemist guy here? Who knows about this?

2 Comments
2024/09/05
10:31 UTC

0

Broken hearted need help

I spent a year and a half with the one person I gave my whole heart to. Some back story I meant this person at the worse point in my life 14 years abused life to kicked out of my house since I was 12 years old because my mom told me I was a whore and would never amount to anything, and she didn’t have any filter when it came to me. Then she sober up and had me locked up multiple times and then the last horrible place in Rockville Maryland this was the 5th time she had lied and had me locked up this was the only place I couldn’t escape from and I meant this boy 16 bad boy me loving the boy, boy I was drawn to him right away and when we got out I seen him a few times but he live so far away and the payment to get a ride to him was my soul . I made one mistake at the beginning because I was afraid to admit I had a panic attack driving up the highway on my way to go see him because I thought he would be like everyone else and walk away I came clean that same night after we had a long talk. My life has been hard 3 failed long term relationships 1 that ended with me being a single mom of 2 kids for years because I never wanted my kids to get attached to someone that was going to leave, one that ended in an failed engagement because he turned out to be a cheater and a liar and only wanted me for what i had worked for years to get myself, and a 7 year relationship that I thought was my soul mate but again ended in him cheating with his 28 year old x that cheated on him in their bed, for years l told him he was never going to be able to have a relationship with closer and again I was right, and again me alone with a 3rd child. Then one night this guy for my pass messaged me so against everything in my heart and brain I messaged him back and everything I was going through I messaged him back and made the decision to let him back in and the first night he came down I was done my heart and soul started to heal, I felt save for the first time ever and from that day I’ve been so scared that he going to be just like everyone else in my life. A few months before this I started having crazy dreams and flashbacks but since I didn’t remember my childhood much I just tried to move on but turns out I couldn’t so the one person in my life was one of me worse abuser and I had been taking care of him since my mom died both siblings walked away from him but I couldn’t I never understood until now and when I finally confronted him he told me he never did anything to me that I didn’t ask for or deserve which explains a lot about my mom and I relationship I couldn’t understand why she hated me so much until now, but when he seen that I didn’t need him anymore he started trying to get in between me and will call him the only one and was caught on camera tell me one thing the only one another thing, and has been trying to turn anyone against me by telling them horrible things about me that aren’t true, he got my older kids so far and I guess now he won and got the only man in my live that I’ve ever loved so maybe I am meant to be lone. Until the day this person walked back into my life I have never felt safe or love like this and never had trust for anyone until him, ever since that dayI have been fighting to keep us together and trying to prove myself to him and that I’m not the monster that people have made me out to be. Yes I’ve made mistakes, yes I have trust issues, yes I lost my way for a minute but being in his arms and feeling his love is the best thing that has ever happened to me and brings me back to this world. I’ve never been a person to sleep because going to sleep meant horrible things. If bad things happen you can bet money that it’s going to happen to me, and it weird stuff unexplainable stuff I use to tell people about the parts of my childhood that I could remember and they would look at me like I was crazy so that has been happening my hold life. The only one for me has made me feel so sexy, loved, safe the only person that has been able to unlock things that I never thought I would have or feel ever I have. People have told me things about him and they have said that he was going to hurt me and there’s been some red flags about him and he’s done things that I’m not sure of so I keep them inside I have a gut feeling there’s things he not telling me but knowing what he has told about his pass i get it but in the end I still chose him over and over again I would do it again over and over. I would move heaven and earth for him. But everyone one else has won and got what they wanted. They even told him they were going to make my life hell and they were going to make sure I was alone and miserable for the rest of my life, they told him I was a monster, a liar, cheater and god knows what else and since he has trust issues and they knew what bottom to push to convince him that everything they said was trust. So guess what they got what they wanted I have lost. I don’t know how you can say you love someone and then walk away without a fight how you can listen to everyone else how no matter what you can’t see the really person inside when they you and love you for you the hole you dirty parts and all, how you spend hour trying to prove that their right instead of being on your partners side. I would never do that and I’ve been fighting and never want to stop fighting for us. I don’t believe in a lot of things but I really believe that we were bought back together after all these years to save each other to show each other the love and the safety that we deserve. And yes this is his page but this is the only way I can get out my heart to him right he has shut me out for months now.

14 Comments
2024/08/30
08:20 UTC

1

H2O2 what to buy

Cant seem to find any products without stabilizers I dont know if it would be an issue what do I buy

3 Comments
2024/08/27
11:02 UTC

1

Can you dehydrate magnesium sulfate in a microwave instead of an oven? ( To use as a dessicant agent )

I want to use it a dessucant for acetone to get acetone anhydrous. I don't need to get 100% water free acetone because I need to wash a product which isn't very water soluble ( only 30mg/mL )

Thanks everyone.

9 Comments
2024/08/19
11:46 UTC

17

Small sample of freshly prepared 1-nitronaphthalene

5 Comments
2024/08/15
20:46 UTC

31

Carbon quantum dots i made from urea and citric acid

The right vial contains the dry quantum dots while the left one is a highly diluted solution of the same dots showing a nice blue fluorescence under UV light

4 Comments
2024/08/13
19:15 UTC

4

What tipe of filters would you recommend for a fume hood?

Since I’ve bought a distiller and I’m going to use it inside I would like to build a fume hood and since I’m doing the project I would like to know what filters are a good choice. I don’t really think that I’ll work with dangerous chemicals but better be safe. I saw HEPA filters whit activated carbon online but I don’t know if it’s good for this purpose. What would you recommend?

26 Comments
2024/08/13
00:17 UTC

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