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#chemistry

63 posts54 participants1 post today
Public
Sam Levine

Yesterday
Me: cleaves Boc group to make a primary in methanolic HCl
Also me: forgets that there is a ketone in the compound

Today: I looked at the TLC and went "uh oh". Clean-ish conversion to a single much higher Rf spot (I was thinking if I got imine formation it would just be a polymeric mess). So I drew some stuff in chemdraw and lo-and-behold it's possible to make a 15 member macrocycle if I draw an intra molecular imine bond. Dammit. Odds of my breaking that to rescue the 95 mg of material in here without also cleaving one of the multiple amide bonds doesn't look good (10 min with 2 M aqueous HCl at room temp certainly didn't do it).

NMR is a bit messy, but the chemical shift for the 1H that might tell me what happened (I didn't put enough in the tube to resolve the 13C carbonyls, whoops) looks more like imine adjacent than amine adjacent.

Might just have to put more sample in the NMR tube to prove I screwed up?

#Chemistry#ChemiVerse
Continued thread
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Sir Rochard 'Dock' Bunson

Since nothing makes sense anymore, let's start with numbers 3 & 3.5. 😅 I'll try to give a brief summary of the chemistry, including links and visual aids before moving onto how I think it could relate to being an activist.

Spoiler: My main takeaways are positive & encouraging.

"#3. activation energy for a chemical reaction
#3.5 enzymes as catalysts

Activation energy is the amount of energy you have to add to a system to cause a reaction to occur. (The positive change that you are trying to bring about in the world.)

Spontaneous reactions don't require this activation energy, but you usually won't observe this reaction unless you add new chemicals because everything that can react (at the present temperature) has already done so & the system is at an equilibrium.

Graph added with explanation in the alt text.

A graph showing the concept of activation energy. Reaction progress with time is along the x axis & the amount of energy in kJ/mol on the y axis. The activation energy is added until it reaches a transitional state then the reaction proceeds and in an exothermic reaction, energy is given off and the products of the reaction are at a lower energy state than the original reactants.
#Chemistry#Activism#TTJ
Public
Colin Purrington

My egg timer failed yesterday so I ended up steaming for 20 mins instead of the desired 8 mins, 50 seconds. Eggs were ruined but I get to share pic of the dreaded ferrous sulfide (FeS) layer on exterior of yolks (right-hand side) next to how they are supposed to look. The discoloration is created when the sulfur released from the albumin proteins combines with the iron on the yolk surface. FeS can cause gut discomfort, too. #eggs #chemistry #cooking #psa

Two chicken eggs, each halved and displayed on a wood cutting board to showcase their centers. On the left, yolks are orange and slightly jam-like. On the right, yolks are pale yellow, chalky, and surrounded by a greenish-gray layer.
Continued thread
Public
Ele Willoughby, PhD

into silver. Modern chemists speculate that she might have been using a legitimate chemical process which uses mercury to extract silver from ore. Likewise her distilling of perfumes could have employed early prohibitive form of the Soxhlet process to continuously extract camphor into alcohol. Thus while alchemy differs in aims & understanding, she would have been using some methods which we can recognize as scientific & can be seen as part of the history of .

minouette.etsy.com/listing/188

Continued thread
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Sam Levine

One of the best bits in the talk was him mentioning "oh this chiral pseudoephenamine gives better results than the pseudoephedrine and it's not a regulated compound". Just casually drops that without mentioning that the original compound is often called the "Myers' Auxiliary".

#Chemistry#ChemiVerse
Public
Flock of Cats 🐈 🐈 🐈 ❄️

I mentioned my lab partner who was a safety hazard in another post. In addition to nearly pepper spraying everyone with a pippette bulb full of pure capsaicin, she also:

— Told me about an accident in a previous class that resulted in a pipette going *through her hand* 😨 🚩 🚩 🚩

— unknowingly washed a platinum electrode down the sink (but, in fairness, she did clean the vial it was in!)

Image features three glass pipettes with measurement markings and three red rubber bulbs for suction, arranged at the top.
#chemistry
Public
NFDI4Chem

This monday we had an internal Metadatathon at the TIB – Leibniz-Informationszentrum Technik und Naturwissenschaften und Universitätsbibliothek. The aim was to discuss current issues regarding the representation of samples, chemical compounds and assays with MiIChIs, #metadata schemas and #ontologies within NFDI4Chem and the #chemistry community.

Challenges in harmonising #data from different consortium data resources and their integration into the NFDI4Chem search service were also discussed.

Public
Ele Willoughby, PhD

Happy birthday to chemist William Henry Perkin (1838-1907)! This block print ‘William Henry Perkin Discovers Mauve’ is about how the British chemist & entrepreneur made the serendipitous discovery of the 1st synthetic organic dye: mauveine. ⁠
⁠
Perkins entered the Royal College of Chemistry in London in 1853 when he was only 15, studying with August Wilhelm von Hofmann. 🧵1/n
⁠

Linocut print of Perkins in grey, a suited, bearded Victorian, at a wooden lab bench covered in glassware and chemical apparatus. He holds a flask at eye level with bright mauve fluid. Wide bright mauve lines radiate outward from it in the background.
Public
The Kid Should See This 🌈🪐✨

Could the secret to life's origins be hiding on a distant #space rock?

#NASA's journey to asteroid Bennu revealed thousands of organic molecules essential for DNA – untouched by #Earth's contamination. What does this 4.5 billion-year-old "recipe" tell us about our beginnings and the possibility of #life throughout our solar system? 🧬🌠

👉 Learn more: thekidshouldseethis.com/post/a

An infographic displaying the chemical structures of Guanine, Cytosine, Adenine, Thymine, and Uracil, labeled "Nucleotide Bases," with a DNA double helix graphic above and below.
#astrobiology#astronomy#chemistry
Public
The Kid Should See This 🌈🪐✨

Could the humble toaster save our planet? 🍞⚡️

A century after its invention, toaster #technology has been supersized into heat batteries that "toast" bricks instead of #bread. These industrial giants could slash the 20% of global carbon #pollution from manufacturing by offering cleaner, cheaper heat – and the technology is ready right now.

👉 Learn more: thekidshouldseethis.com/post/h

A cartoon-style illustration of a green car battery with a yellow lightning bolt symbol, set against a red background with white bubbles and a red spill.
#animation#chemistry#cleanenergy
Public
Aethelflaed

#science #technology #astrology #chemistry

Just hitting the news is that fluorescent biomolecules have been found in ice near the surface of Europa, Jupiter's second moon. The moon is believed to have a subsurface ocean that is in contact with the rocky mantle. This means that organic molecules are being synthesised by geothermal activity. These molecules are bombarded by ultraviolet radiation meaning that they soon degrade.

astrobiology.com/2025/03/fluor

Astrobiology · Fluorescent Biomolecules Detectable in Near-Surface Ice on Europa - AstrobiologyEuropa is believed to host a subsurface ocean in contact with a rocky mantle, where hydrothermal activity may drive the synthesis of organic molecules.
Public
The Embodiment of RED :fire_t:

I wish I had more recent, practical #chemistry knowledge & experience. For example, I know molten salts like potassium nitrate are generally fairly corrosive–maybe not KNO3 in particular, stainless seems to stand up pretty well unless used for applications with an extended duration–but what about salts in solution with your average, dollar-store weak acid? You throw a tablespoon of NaCl in 6 oz. of lemon juice, how long before it can reasonably be expected to destroy a spoon? What difference does iodine make, seeing as so much salt is iodized? Is it more stable, or giving out electrons like red carpet gift bags?

I used to know how to start theorizing; now, I'd have to actually sacrifice a few forks and butterknives to find out. It's a bummer. (also, hey, feel free to answer any of that if you've got some informed perspective)

Public
Nicole Sharp

Anti-Icing Polar Bear Fur

Despite spending their lives in and around frigid water, snow, and ice, polar bears are rarely troubled by ice building up on their fur. This natural anti-icing property is one Inuits have long taken advantage of by using polar bear fur in hunting stools and sandals. In a new study, researchers looked at just how “icephobic” polar bear fur is and what properties make it so.

The key to a polar bear’s anti-icing is sebum — a mixture of cholesterol, diacylglycerols, and fatty acids secreted from glands near each hair’s root. When sebum is present on the hair, the researchers found it takes very little force to remove ice; in contrast, fur that had been washed with a surfactant that stripped away the sebum clung to ice.

The researchers are interested in uncovering which specific chemical components of sebum impart its icephobicity. That information could enable a new generation of anti-icing treatments for aircraft and other human-made technologies; right now, many anti-icing treatments use PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” that have major disadvantages to human and environmental health. (Image credit: H. Mager; research credit: J. Carolan et al.; via Physics World)

Polar bears secrete chemicals that make their fur naturally ice-resistant, suggesting new anti-icing tech for us, too.
#adhesion#biology#chemistry
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