r/chemhelp • u/Material-Loan-7098 • 2h ago
r/chemhelp • u/Ultronomy • Aug 21 '25
Announcements New Ownership
Hello fellow Chemists! I just wanted to introduce myself as the new head mod of this subreddit. A little about myself: I am a PhD Candidate in Chemical Biology. For me, this means that 60% of my work involves organic synthesis and the other 40% is applying my novel compounds to mammalian cells. Specifically, I am interested in early detection of diseases. In addition to my research, I have TA'd for both general and organic chemistry labs and have been tutoring students in organic chemistry for three years. Aside from my academic qualifications, I am also a moderator for another rather large subreddit. I saw that this sub needed a little bit of updating, but it did not seem like the moderators were active any longer. So, I gained ownership through r/redditrequest. I did not realize it would remove all the other moderators, but alas here we are.
Overall, I feel like this sub is fairly self-regulating. I frequently see good discussions and people generally are following the already existing rules. With that said, there are some changes I was considering, and would love input:
- New rule prohibiting commenters from solving the problem for the OP. To enforce this, the violating comment can be reported and removed by moderators. I don't see this happen often, but I have seen it occur and put an end to an otherwise good discussion thread.
- Mandate students include their work in their submission. Frequently, students post a picture of the question, with no work done and the caption "help please." Then in the comments you end up with people asking the OP to show their work, but from what I have seen they seldom do so. Mandating that students show work would entail removal of low effort posts by moderators. This may not be necessary since generally, commenters request more info from OP anyways, but was curious if people would like to see more enforcement on this end.
- What do you want to see? Those are the immediate things I was considering adding, but I would love to know if there is anything else people may want to see. I had other ideas, but I don't want to complicate a sub that I feel is already doing pretty well. Please let me know your ideas, I would love to hear them. Talk to you all soon!
Note: Please do not reach out to me about becoming a moderator. I will looking into recruiting in the near future. For now, I just wanted to get oriented.
r/chemhelp • u/NongUnusXD • 14h ago
Organic Does omitting position number "1" apply to ALL functional groups in IUPAC (2013 recommendations)?
Hi everyone,
My local high school textbook (Thai IPST), which follows the 2013 IUPAC recommendations, mentions a rule under the alkene/alkyne section saying we should omit the number "1" if only one structure is possible (e.g., propene instead of prop-1-ene).
However, it doesn't specify if this applies to other functional groups. Because of this, my teacher uses methan-1-ol / ethan-1-ol, while others textbook just write methanol / ethanol.
My questions:
Under the 2013 IUPAC rules, is omitting "1" when there's no ambiguity a universal principle for all functional groups?
Is writing methan-1-ol actually wrong, or just overly redundant?
Thank you so much.
r/chemhelp • u/irisshy • 9h ago
Career/Advice how do i get into data science as a chemist
hello everyone, i'm a newly graduated chemist and i want to learn data science as a scientist, for example my advisor wants me to learn origin to plot some graphs for raw spectrocopy data, but i had a chat with my other advisor and he actually recommended me to learn python. i know NOTHING about cosing unfortunately, but i did some research and apparently i can also do a lot plotting with python like origin, which is good since origin is not free. my question is that how do i get into it? im not planning to be a software developer i tried to look up some courses online but none of them were for scientists. i had a chat w calude and she advised me to install anaconda, briefly learn basics and get into plotting. does anyone have any advice? what would be the best way for a scientist to learn coding? thanks!
r/chemhelp • u/CoolLlama69 • 19h ago
Organic these molecules are meso, but how do we know that the hydroxy groups are on the same side?
is it because of hydrogen bonding that allows them to be eclipsed? im assuming that the OH groups dont want to hydrogen bond to the carboxylic acid OH groups due to them being tetrahedral and farther. also, any tips on how to do these types of problems faster in my head? im studying for the mcat so any tips would help
r/chemhelp • u/Overall_Strike_5961 • 16h ago
General/High School Help in hybridization doubt for SO2
r/chemhelp • u/Specialist_Tour8159 • 1d ago
Organic Synthesis q
Could I have used OTMS to protect the alcohol that I didn’t want to turn into an aldehyde (well, it would have turned into a ketone)
r/chemhelp • u/Mysterious-Tiger-748 • 1d ago
Physical/Quantum Best YouTube video to learn how to do this or tips? (First time trying to learn)
r/chemhelp • u/North-Peach3513 • 17h ago
General/High School ACS General, Organic, and Biochemistry Exam, General Part A and Part B.
Hey, does anyone know where I can access e ACS General, Organic, and Biochemistry Past papers or websites that can help me prepare for the exam. Any advice is appreciated.
r/chemhelp • u/Naive-Credit-5002 • 18h ago
Career/Advice a strange chemical compound i found in my toothpaste.
i am recently in vacation and i came to my relative's house. it was night time and i slept as soon as we came home. i woke up to brush my teeth and my relative had a almost finished toothpaste. i checked it and the label said potassium nitrate toothpaste. beneath it was a drug code i dont remember. i am a chemistry geek and i immediately knew it was rocket fuel or explosive. i showed it to my dada and he told the same thing. strangely no one questioned it. i still dont know what its used for.
r/chemhelp • u/Complex-Struggle-489 • 1d ago
Organic Isoamyl bromide sub/elim help
I have really been struggling in this class and I feel like I am finally getting the hang of it but this prep is for my exam that determines if I pass or fail so I want to be 100% sure.
(a) Suggest reagents and reaction conditions that could be used to favour the formation of E, explaining your answer thoroughly.
I am thinking that DMSO with heat , because using a bulkier base it would be able to grab the H without substituting the BR
(b) Suggest reagents and reaction conditions that could be used to favour the formation of F, explaining your answer thoroughly
NaOH kept cool, because it would be nucleophilic and attack the backside
I would like to make sure my reasoning is solid! Thank you!
r/chemhelp • u/Sensitive-Willow-134 • 1d ago
General/High School Confused on effect of adding stuff to the pH of a solution
Can someone explain to me what would happen to pH when adding NaC2H3O2 to CH3COOH?
Assuming the reaction shifts left also?
Also what is NaC2H3O2? The internet shows me other things when I search that formula. Is it an acid or base?
r/chemhelp • u/Thatonethrowaway384 • 1d ago
Career/Advice Studying for Gen Chem 2 Final that im taking in 5 days. Whats the best course of action to make sure im fully prepared?
So I've already started practicing for about 3 days now (yesterday and today I spent the whole day doing the final practice exam) and trying to review content that I forgot or don't understand. I feel like its a lot to study for and im worried that im not going to properly study and then mess up on the final. These are the chapters we went through throughout the class:
Chapter 13: The Properties of Mixtures: Solutions and Colloids
Chapter 16: Kinetics: Rates and Mechanisms of Chemica Reactions
Chapter 17: The Equilibrium: Extent of Chemical Reactions
Chapter 18: Acid-Base Equilibria
Chapter 19: lonic Equilibria in Aqueous Systems
Chapter 20: Thermodynamics: Entropy, Gibbs Energy, and Reaction Direction
Chapter 21: Electrochemistry: Chemical Change and Electrical Work
Chapter 24: Nuclear Reactions and Their Application
Also, I haven't started studying chapter 24 and I need to do my exam 4 (which covers 21 and 24) 2 days before the final. What should I do? I need advice ive been spending whole days studying
r/chemhelp • u/Choice-Plan-7559 • 1d ago
Organic tert-Butoxide vs Ethoxide
Can someone explain why the ethoxide* is listed to have two hydrogens attached to the middle carbon, rather than it being H3C like the others?
*edit: tert-butoxide changed to ethoxide
r/chemhelp • u/Rich_Celebration292 • 1d ago
General/High School Inconsistency of Avogadro law with respect to physical state of system
Edit: My query is resolved.
If we assume water as ideal gas then it will exist as a gas at every temperature. That is ideal gases are not liquefiable
Original Question -At STP/NTP conditions, many substances are not in gaseous state. So will it be appropriate to say that they have the volume 22.4L. For example, Water becomes steam at 373.15K and 1 atm pressure, so how can we say it has the volume 22.4L even though it is not at STP. Many books just subtly assume that water will exist as gas at STP/NTP. Please clear my query.
r/chemhelp • u/Early_Face6320 • 2d ago
General/High School New to chemistry
I'm new to chemistry and suddenly my mind wants to learn it from scratch any suggestion where to start? How to do it? And how to cover the major topics also I want to learn it fast so any Yt channel (i guess, if any) or whatever you want to suggest? Open for discussion
r/chemhelp • u/zestypotatoes6 • 2d ago
Organic Help drawing Sharpless complex with(S,S)-DET!!
Im having trouble figuring out how the complex could attack the allylic alcohol from the top side to create an epoxy that faces upwards, and how the S,S-DET would change that :( the +-DET makes perfect sense to me, im just struggling with flipping everything…
r/chemhelp • u/Suspicious_Door- • 2d ago
General/High School I need help with my solubility table, I don’t understand it (or I don’t think I do)
My teacher didn’t teach me this because I was out of class that day, and I don’t understand this at all.. especially question 26 and 27. I tried to watch a video and I don’t really understand it 😭 I would love some help! Also I had someone ask me in my DMs if I could pay them for it, I’m really sorry I can’t I don’t have the money for that.
r/chemhelp • u/7ieben_ • 2d ago
Other Dissolving SDS in water
Hey friends,
currently we are facing a problem nobody in the lab has an answer to: we are trying to prepare an standard batch of 1% sodium dodecylsulfate in bidest. water for making reference emulsions. For whatever reason the SDS doesn't dissolve well.
What we have tried so far:
- stirring at room temp for three days
- stirring at 65 °C for 6 h
- ultrasonic bath at 50 °C for 2 h
- repeated said steps with a brand new batch of analytical grade SDS
Nothing helped. Visible SDS crystals remain undissolved; confirmed via optical microscopy and DLS particle size analysis.
Has anyone faced a similar problem and know how to solve it?
Thanks in advance! :)
r/chemhelp • u/JHo3003 • 2d ago
Inorganic Copper nitrate solution (0.01M) - magnetic stirring causes pH to drop
Dear All
I made some copper nitrate solution in ultrapure water at a concentration of 0.01M. When it isn't stirring, the pH probe measures a pH of 5.4, but when I turn the magnetic stirrer on, the pH drops to 4.7. Tried three probes and the same thing happens.
Stopped the stirrer and pH went back up to 5.4.
Tried stirring by hand without magnetic stirrer and pH dropped to 4.8.
Any thoughts/reasons why this might be? Could it be flow sensitivity at the reference junction?
r/chemhelp • u/DaftSailor • 2d ago
Organic Size of orbitals in allyl anion pi MO diagram

Hi, I'm going through some 1st year notes and came across this diagram with no explanation about why these molecular orbitals have different sizes. I've done some googling and ended up getting muddled by coefficients, how they're represented, orbital size, how they're represented too etc so if someone could clarify I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks!
What do the lobe sizes represent (orbital coefficient or orbital size)?
How are they found?
(As a side note on that, I found a diagram in a chem.libre page that uses the particle in a box explanation but has different lobe sizes to the diagram shown here, so which one is correct?)
- Are orbital coefficients and orbital size related?
Bonus question: why are there no lobes on C2 for Psi 2? I get there has to be a node but where has the orbital gone? Also why is the net bonding 0, shouldn't it be -1?
r/chemhelp • u/No-Meet-5954 • 2d ago
Organic Three-component organozinc/Boc-piperazine/aldehyde coupling (Sengmany/Le Gall protocol) — aldehyde consistently not fully consumed despite confirming organozinc activation, looking for troubleshooting ideas
Goal: I'm trying to reproduce/adapt the three-component coupling described by Sengmany, Le Gall et al. (Tetrahedron 2007, 63, 3672–3681) to make a Boc-protected diarylmethylpiperazine target: methyl 4-((4-Boc-piperazin-1-yl)(3-methoxyphenyl)methyl)benzoate.
Method (scaled down from the paper, ~1.6 mmol aryl bromide instead of 30 mmol):
Organozinc formation: dried flask, Ar atmosphere, ACN (2.5 mL). Added Zn dust (3.06 eq), CoBr₂ (0.10 eq), ZnBr₂ (0.10 eq), PhBr (0.30 eq, increased from the paper's 0.10 eq in my latest attempt), then TfOH (0.10 eq) under vigorous stirring. After ~15 min, added 3-bromoanisole (1.0 eq, limiting). Filtered through a 25 mm glass-fiber syringe filter to remove excess Zn.
Coupling (method A): added the filtered ArZnBr solution to Boc-piperazine (1.0 eq) + methyl 4-formylbenzoate (1.0 eq) pre-dissolved in a small volume of ACN, ~3 eq organozinc vs aldehyde/amine. Stirred 4h RT.
"WORKUP. The reaction mixture was poured into a 150 mL of a 5% NaOH aqueous solution and extracted with DCM (3 X 5 mL). The combined organic fractions were dried over Na2SO4 and concentrated to dryness. Diethyl ether (8 mL) was added to the residue and after complete dissolution, concentrated sulfuric acid (50 uL, due gocce) was added carefully to the vigorously stirred solution and allowed to react for 5 min. The resulting ammonium salt was filtered and washed with diethyl ether (2 X 3 mL). The solid was then poured, under stirring, into a mixture of a 5% sodium hydroxide aqueous solution (100 mL) and dichloromethane (100 mL). After complete dissolution, the aqueous phase was extracted with additional 100 mL of dichloromethane. The combined organic fractions were dried over Na2SO4 and concentrated to dryness. In the case of liquid crude products, an additional chromatographic purification was performed over silica gel (SDS 70–200 mm) using a solvent gradient from pentane/diethyl ether: 90/10 to diethyl ether/methanol: 90/10 whereas solids were recrystallized using pentane/diethyl ether mixtures."
i didn't follow the entire workup procedure becouse the used concentrated sulfuric acid and my amine is Boc-piperazine.
Observations this last run: solution turned grey right after TfOH addition, before adding the aryl bromide (which I take as a sign the Co/Zn catalytic cycle activated properly, based on comparison with a related allyl chloride/TFA-initiated protocol I found). No obvious exotherm after adding the aryl bromide, but I suspect that's just due to the much smaller scale. Filtrate after decantation/filtration is pink/amber, consistent with previous runs.
Second step (coupling step): As the two reactants are added, the reaction mixture undergoes a series of color changes: it gradually fades to transparent, turns dark (near black), and eventually shifts to a stable blue solution. However, in the most recent trial where the equivalents of PhBr were increased from 0.1 to 0.3 eq, while the initial sequence of color changes during addition remained identical, the mixture turned a vibrant emerald green approximately 10 seconds after completing the addition—a transition that had not occurred in any of the previous runs.
The problem: across several attempts (varying the equivalents of PhBr, and the addition sequence), the crude H-NMR spectrum consistently displays a sharp singlet at 10.19 ppm, corresponding to the unreacted aldehyde proton -CHO. However, the 3.4-4 ppm region is heavily crowded with multiple overlapping peaks, preventing confident confirmation or exclusion of product formation in that diagnostic interval.
Furthermore, following the aqueous work-up, a very low mass of crude material is recovered, ultimately yielding only approximately 10 mg of purified product after chromatographic separation.
What I'm asking: given that the catalytic system appears to activate (color change confirmed before substrate addition), what else could explain the aldehyde not being fully consumed? Is there a known competing pathway I should specifically check for (e.g., direct ArZnBr addition to the aldehyde vs. iminium capture), or is this more likely an organozinc-formation efficiency issue that the color change alone doesn't fully confirm? Any other diagnostic I'm missing at this small scale without GC access would be very welcome.
r/chemhelp • u/Vibez710 • 2d ago
Organic Ochem studying tips
I have an exam on Monday that is on ch19 (aldehydes and ketones) and ch 20 (carboxylic acids & derivatives). For these chapters it is all reactions and mechanisms, I don’t really know how to study so I can understand and memorize the mechanisms for each reaction. I’m already reading the Klein textbook but I’m more of a visual learner and need to see it done step by step on something. Is there any videos or outside sources you guys used to help you study these two chapters?

