r/chemistry • • 3d ago

Weekly Careers/Education Questions Thread

5 Upvotes

This is a dedicated weekly thread for you to seek and provide advice concerning education and careers in chemistry.

If you need to make an important decision regarding your future or want to know what your options, then this is the place to leave a comment.

If you see similar topics in r/chemistry, please politely inform them of this weekly feature.


r/chemistry • • 1d ago

Weekly Research S.O.S. Thread - Ask your research and technical questions here

5 Upvotes

Ask the r/chemistry intelligentsia your research/technical questions. This is a great way to reach out to a broad chemistry network about anything you are curious about or need insight with and for professionals who want to help with topics that they are knowledgeable about.

So if you have any questions about reactions not working, optimization of yields or anything else concerning your current (or future) research, this is the place to leave your comment.

If you see similar topics of people around r/chemistry please direct them to this weekly thread where they hopefully get the help that they are looking for.


r/chemistry • • 3h ago

A hammered-finish pure Rhenium (Element 75) ring I made and mirror-polished

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154 Upvotes

Hello,I'm Captain Iridium, first-time poster here!

I have loved corrosion-resistant metals for 34 years and have been handcrafting rings from pure refractory metals (Ir, Ru, Rh, Re, Ta, Nb, Hf, Zr, etc.) since 2010.

This is a ring I made from pure Rhenium.
Rhenium is very difficult to work with and polish.I have spent 16 years improving my hand-polishing skills for rare metals. It was a big challenge to polish each small hammered mark into a true mirror shine, with zero coating or plating.

Among all the metals in the periodic table, Rhenium is my 4th favorite metal—right after Iridium, Rhodium, and Tantalum. At room temperature, Rhenium in compact (solid) form hardly reacts with air or water, and it can resist hydrochloric acid and dilute sulfuric acid under normal conditions. Some articles say that Rhenium can even withstand aqua regia, but that is completely wrong! (In fact, Rhenium dissolves easily in nitric acid and aqua regia.) The reason for this myth is that a book named Corrosion Guide misspelled "Rhodium" as "Rhenium". Many later books and articles blindly cited that chapter, spreading such a big mistake!😁😁😁


r/chemistry • • 6h ago

Real or Fake mercury bottle?

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120 Upvotes

Found at an antique store in California, the lady told me it was empty. I went home and checked (with gloves but then got paranoid so now it’s double bagged)

Edit: okay so the lady in the store opened it and looked inside with her flashlight and said it was empty.


r/chemistry • • 14h ago

Black sodium flame

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410 Upvotes

Methanol flame with Na+ ions turns almost black when irradiated with a low pressure sodium lamp, the sodium ions in the flame absorb the same wavelengths emitted by the lamp.


r/chemistry • • 14h ago

If you were placed into 1500’s middle age England, could you make a living/gain power with your chemistry knowledge?

90 Upvotes

assuming the language barrier doesn’t exist, I think my first move would be to write down literally everything I know about chemistry incase I forget it.

Maybe you could impress a lord to gain favour or something like that…


r/chemistry • • 11h ago

Aircraft exhaust particles may become more harmful over time

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24 Upvotes

Exhaust does not stop changing when it leaves an engine. Reactions in the atmosphere can produce new particles and alter the chemistry of existing ones. In laboratory experiments, aircraft-combustor emissions became substantially more reactive as researchers simulated days of exposure to atmospheric oxidants.

Their oxidative potential per unit particle mass increased six- to sevenfold after aging equivalent to approximately 12 days. Emissions from a marine diesel engine showed a different pattern in the same chemical test. The contrast suggests that freshly emitted exhaust alone cannot describe how particle reactivity develops in the air.

The study, published in Environmental Science Atmospheres, was led by Markus Kalberer’s group at the University of Basel. Alexandre Barth and Battist Utinger were its two first authors. The work examined chemical indicators associated with potential harm, rather than measuring disease or demonstrating a corresponding increase in human toxicity.


r/chemistry • • 14h ago

Is it weird/frowned upon for a chemistry student in uni to be interested in amateur chemistry as a process? (NOT in practice)

35 Upvotes

I was talking to a classmate about something I read online regarding as far as I can remember salicylic acid from aspirin? I found that super interesting! I love reading about stuff like that, not in terms of doing it, it is obviously unsafe and et cetera but, the little workarounds and methods interest me because its something I have an actual frame of reference for, which I don’t for like normal synthesis using typical laboratory equipment and complex organic chemistry methods (1st year lol)

I should reiterate that I understand that this is bad and dangerous and it’s only an interest in the same vein as like watching a murder documentary or something.

but they acted like it was strange for me to be intrigued by it, and that “the only chemistry work I’m interested in is during our labs” and I don’t know, it came off as very uncurious to me, and so my question is,

Is it frowned upon to be interested by this? (as a CONCEPT), or is it like someone studying forensic science being very interested in how to get away with murder? Is this something that could cause me trouble? (I don’t see why it would)

thanks!


r/chemistry • • 8h ago

How I did Molecular dynamics on a peptide with my own code

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3 Upvotes

New video showing more in depth how the Julia Molecular Dynamics code works, and the different tools in the program I made. Also there is a link to GitHub if someone wants to download the program


r/chemistry • • 17h ago

Since the chill drawing tools I used all got shut down, what are some good and free chemical drawing tools?

6 Upvotes

I was using marvin sketch, but the free version of that got shut down, moved to chemsketch but very much disliked that. Now I found marvin js but that one also got shut down (at least it's getting shut down end of next year, but I can't access it anymore anyway) and now they also want me to pay.

I'm a 3rd year organic bachelor student and my school doesn't provide a software, but does want me to use one. So what are some free drawing tools ya'll use?

It'd be much appreciated!


r/chemistry • • 2h ago

Chemistry At Home

0 Upvotes

Hello!

I live quite far away from Universities, without any transportation to get there. Seeing this, I switched to an online degree of CIS, but I am taking a home-kit of Chemistry I and the rest is theory.

I want to do hands-on labs pretty badly besides the kit, but I am very far from a University without ways to get there. (I cannot drive due to a disability) So, I am taking it online.

I still have a great interest in chemistry, and want to learn it still. Is there any way I can buy my own lab equipment and safely do hands on reactions for Chemistry II, Organic Chemistry I and II, and Biochemistry at home? I want to still have that hands-on science feel.

Thank you!


r/chemistry • • 9h ago

Does anybody know an actual big chemistry/alchemy game on steam?

1 Upvotes

Ive been looking for one for a while now since i got bored of Noita. i have tried factorio, spacechem, opus magnum, sokobond and ect. but i dont like any of those any suggestions?


r/chemistry • • 1d ago

Battery water, Distilled or deionized?

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78 Upvotes

Is this a safe alternative for distilled water in laboratory chemical experiments? Our lab just ran out of distilled water and the boss suggested we use the available alternative before the purchase request is approved.


r/chemistry • • 17h ago

Amorphous intermediates and discovery of a kinetic polymorph of BiVO4 from heating V+Bi+Zn single-source precursors

4 Upvotes

Open-access paper in Nature Communications, published 30 April 2026: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-71702-7

The researchers followed the thermal decomposition of polyoxovanadate single-source precursors using solid-state NMR, pair-distribution function analysis and in-situ X-ray diffraction. They identified amorphous intermediates and a previously unknown, kinetically stabilised polymorph, β-BiVO4, alongside temperature-dependent incorporation of zinc dopants. The paper also examines amorphous mixed-valence vanadium oxides as lithium-ion battery electrodes.

The chemistry relevance is the molecule-to-solid transformation: intermediate phases can offer structures and properties that are missed when synthesis is assessed only by its final crystalline product. This is an April paper receiving renewed coverage this month; the work does not demonstrate a finished commercial battery or solar-fuel device.


r/chemistry • • 12h ago

How is that possible, rocket propellent?

1 Upvotes

How the ALICE rocket propellent is possible to propell a rocket. In a sport or a hobby called high power rocketery? Usally propellent are made from Ammonium perchlorate/ alluminium or pottasium nitrate and sugar? How just water/ ice and aluminium powder is actually a powerful propellent in hobby grade amature rockertry!!!! What is the chemistry behind it? Ice/water is a powerful oxzider!!! What other fuel other than aluminum can be used?


r/chemistry • • 9h ago

Is cheminformatics really chemistry subject

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0 Upvotes

r/chemistry • • 2d ago

Replacing the underwater sacrificial anode on a yacht

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1.6k Upvotes

I was aware of this because of electrochem, but hadn't ever seen one! It is way smaller than i thought it would be!


r/chemistry • • 15h ago

麻省理工学院的 MITx 化学课程好不好?

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1 Upvotes

r/chemistry • • 15h ago

Seperating water vapour from diacetyl

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1 Upvotes

r/chemistry • • 16h ago

Varian ICP. we have problem in Snout of varian ICP . Need support from whom we have to contat

1 Upvotes

r/chemistry • • 1d ago

Watching Ketamine Bind the NMDA Receptor | 33 ns Molecular Dynamics

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24 Upvotes

This video shows S-ketamine bound inside the membrane-embedded human NMDA receptor during a ~33-nanosecond molecular dynamics simulation.

The simulation started from the experimental structure PDB 7EU7 and was run in an explicit lipid membrane and water environment. Ketamine binds within the NMDA receptor ion channel and acts as a channel blocker, reducing ion flow through the receptor.

Molecular dynamics lets us move beyond a single static protein structure and watch how the drug and receptor behave together over time.

Structure: PDB 7EU7
Ligand: S-ketamine
Target: NMDA receptor
Simulation: ~33 ns molecular dynamics

#ketamine #moleculardynamics #NMDA #neuroscience #computationalchemistry #drugdiscovery #structuralbiology #biochemistry #chemistry


r/chemistry • • 2d ago

What would happen if I put laboratory grade octane in my car?

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409 Upvotes

r/chemistry • • 1d ago

A Wyoming grad student who allegedly poisoned a colleague has been arrested fleeing to China with laptops, hard drives

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101 Upvotes

r/chemistry • • 15h ago

Converting rubber contraceptive to liquid form

0 Upvotes

Is there a possibility of converting rubber contraceptives to liquid form so that it can be mixed with a resin to create a slab? Is it possible to do that without destroying much of the elastic properties/characteristics? Thanks in advance EDIT: I think there is notion for the relevance that is missing from the question I was trying to recycle some waste latex to some energy absorbing panels My initial methodology was to cryogenic grind to powder but I don't have access to those facilities locally.


r/chemistry • • 1d ago

Emulsifiers and solvents. Where do I start to understand this more?

8 Upvotes

I know I am asking strangers, but maybe I will get lucky.

What I am trying to do is emulsify mineral oil with alcohol (95%) isopropyl or denatured. I don't know what to search for to learn the chemistry of this. My searches keep directing me towards water and oil which is not what I am trying to do. I am trying to mix alcohols and oils.

The reason is that when working with leather dyes, it dries the leather out normally. If I mix an oil with the dye this issue is eliminated, the oil also pulls the dye into the leather better. (there are multiple different oils I can use, but I am keeping with mineral oil for this thread)

If I use "oil" based dyes, the mixtures are fairly stable. Hours or days. Enough to work with. "Alcohol" based dyes, this mixture splits within minutes unless I keep the container on the stir plate. This is what I had to do to see if oil the technique works with alcohol based dyes, and it does. So, the dye being oil or alcohol based both perform better when used with more oil to pull it into the leather. Unfortunately this can't be a workaround for the alcohol based colors because I can't air brush with it needing to constantly restir every few minutes.

I tried using polysorbate 80 to emulsify the alcohol into the oil, and while this did work a little bit, it didn't work well. It works better with water which isn't what I am going for. The oil based dye has oleic acid in it according to the MSDS, which polysorbate 80 is derived from. Now I am wondering if that might be the key difference why that one is more stable. But, I am throwing things against the wall and seeing what sticks. I would like to learn more to be more targeted with my formula.