Does anyone who runs automated column chromatography ever turn up the gain on the UV-vis detector? I've never done it but I have some things with unusually low absorbance for their structures and I've been tempted to, but don't know if it would be helpful or by how much I should try (the options are 1x - 10x on the combiflash).
(also my poor little fluorophore chemist brain is fried by the idea of absorbance having a gain option...)
Me: This stuff is really expensive and I would prefer a version with this other side chain that isn't commercially available. How hard could it be to make?
Me after reading the literature:
Lithium based arsenic?
My poor little chemist's brain just exploded.
Nice to know my entire week was a waste in the lab by taking my NMRs Friday afternoon. I should have held off until Monday...
Less than 10% of plastics are produced using recycled materials
An analysis of the global plastics industry shows that only 9.5% of plastic was made from recycled materials in 2022. Almost a third of plastic waste produced during that year was allocated for recycling, but only half was actually recycled.
Some interesting background theory in Grobb's gas chromatography book! I’d heard bits of this story before about whisky and "water of life," but never quite put it together. 
#Chemistry #Chemiverse
Heard on Reddit this morning:
“What happens to bad spectroscopists?”
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“They go to prism.”
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"It’s a light sentence.”
Heard on Reddit this morning:
“Why does a pound of hamburger have less energy than a pound of steak?”
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"Because it’s in ground state.”
Question for people who maybe do fab and/or electronics work (or anyone else). Are your "desiccator cabinets" air tight in a similar way that chemical ones are? They get called by the same term and also marked as "static dissipative".
By air tight I mean I can put in a color changing desiccant and it shouldn't change color for months at a minimum if I don't open the door.
Pictures don't make it clear if there is a gasket that would give this sort of seal or not.
I have no idea how competitive this is (maybe they only get 10 applicants? maybe they get 10,000?) but it might be worth having grad students apply since it looks like the initial application is only a total of 375 words. No cash, but $5,000 in qiagen supplies is nothing to sneeze at either.
Green light for UK carbon capture projects – but will they deliver?
Help me Fedi hive-mind! I have a small amount of mercury-contaminated glassware (an old bubbler) that I need to deal with. I have a vague memory of nitric acid being used, but this UIUC sheet is not in favor. I guess I could treat it like a thermometer and break it up, but that's a lot of glass shard to make and manage.
#mercury #chemistry #chemiverse #hazardous_chemicals #hazardous_waste #lablife
https://drs.illinois.edu/site-documents/ElementalMercury.pdf
Blood Types and Carbohydrate Chemistry
Learn how simple carbohydrates lead to the AB0 blood types
https://doi.org/10.1002/chemv.201500099
Stuff found while sorting through old stuff in a 4C fridge:
Anyone else having a "fun" start to the week?
Wasn't expecting to see a Seinfeld reference on a mass spectrometry site this afternoon! #Chemiverse
https://littlemsandsailing.com
PFAS in fertilisers blamed for killing livestock in Texas and wreaking havoc
Synagro fertiliser made from biosolids (municipal wastewater-treated sewage sludge from the city of Fort Worth, Texas) has been blamed, as these kind of fertilisers have been known to contain PFAS-contaminated biosolids.
https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/pfas-in-fertilisers-blamed-for-killing-livestock-in-texas-and-wreaking-havoc/4020874.article
#Pollution #PFAS #ForeverChemicals #Chemistry #ChemToots #ChemiVerse
Such a wonderful work from Glorius Group!
Most of the times this kind of tutorials are marginal in big journals, while only promoting discussions about "real science".
However, this kind of papers sharing and summarizing operational strategies to organize the work and tackle your research objectives are highly needed!! You can always learn new stuff.
#chemistry #synthesis #science #ChemiVerse #tutorial #teaching
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2025/cs/d4cs01046a
Was braucht man für ein perfekt gekochtes Ei? Ein Wasserbad mit kochendem Wasser, ein Wasserbad bei 30 Grad und 32 Minuten Zeit. #chemiverse https://www.nature.com/articles/s44172-024-00334-w
When the results of a reaction are so unexpectedly bad (by NMR) that you have to put an appropriate emoji in the ELN...
Anyone with a lab balance for larger things (the type you usually weigh 100s of grams on) have a max weight recommendation? We need to buy one and the one we've been using in another lab has a max of 8.2 kg so it only reads in 0.1 g increments and I'd like to go lower so we can get accuracy to 0.01 g, but I don't know what a reasonable max is for most people.
