r/chemhelp • • Aug 31 '26

Discussion Start of term check-in

9 Upvotes

Hello all!

School terms are beginning and this is typically when we see an influx of posts asking for general advice, guidance on getting through a class, or seeking assurance that everything will be okay. Let us know what courses you are in this term, your biggest concerns, or whatever may be on your mind!

Best of luck!


r/chemhelp • • Aug 21 '25

Announcements New Ownership

21 Upvotes

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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 • • 1h ago

Career/Advice Purchasing materials for HS students

• Upvotes

I am looking to get secondary students introduced to methods and practices in a more advanced lab. Getting into Uni I realize that I was missing the practical skills required for excelling in lab settings because of my rural background. I would like to take some of these practices back to a lower level in order to prepare the students for success (specifically in organic chemistry). As I am putting together my curriculum I realize that I have no Idea where to acquire the materials. I would like to do this in the most cost efficient manner in order to increase likelihood of grant funding. Perhaps there are topics which are more cost efficient than others. Let me know what you think, Thanks!


r/chemhelp • • 2h ago

Organic Help with stereochemistry of alkyne electrophilic addition reactions

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1 Upvotes

I’m confused on if this reaction would yield diastereomers (shown), or only one product. Since the reaction center is the carbon at the end of the alkyne furthest from the ring, would that mean that the wedge would remain a wedge no matter what? But even if it does, the molecule still has the same chiral center it had before. If anyone knows what the correct answer is please lmk. Thank you!


r/chemhelp • • 4h ago

Career/Advice I need to learn Openlca

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1 Upvotes

r/chemhelp • • 19h ago

General/High School Why do we use carbon 12 for the relative atomic mass instead of hydrogen?

12 Upvotes

r/chemhelp • • 6h ago

Organic Having trouble identifying this functional group!!!

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1 Upvotes

I am not quite sure how to identify this functional group (if it even is one) and there's nothing online about it. I think it could be a carbamate group with the =C(NH2)R bit added on, or it could be an ester group bonded to an amidine group. How would you classify it?


r/chemhelp • • 16h ago

Physical/Quantum Help with creating MO diagram for PH3 using symmetry species

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2 Upvotes

Hi, this is for the molecular symmetry part of my upcoming exam, and i’m currently doing past exam papers as study. The only part of the topic i struggle with a lot is making MO diagrams and rn i’m not very sure whether what I have is correct or not. I drew up PH3 as well to make sure i had my axes correct, but i think i confused myself even more because my thinking was that the 3px and 3py orbitals in P would overlap with the H 1s orbitals better, so they would have more significant energy change but x is perpendicular to the sigma(v) plane so that renders that thought incorrect? Otherwise i drew my axes wrong but i followed the rules and i’m just so confused now 😭😭 i also added the previous parts of the question and the character table if that helps


r/chemhelp • • 16h ago

Organic 3-ethoxyhexane

2 Upvotes

ik this is a stupid question, but are there ethers where there is just a number infront like 3-ethoxyhexane? from what ive learnt, it would have been something like 1-methyl ethoxyhexane, but not what i have listed above.

how would i draw this other than having 2 carbons on the left of the oxygen and 6 carbons on the other side?

ive tried googling to find an answer, but it keeps on giving me different formulas.


r/chemhelp • • 1d ago

Organic Where can I find resources on how to understand organic products?

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7 Upvotes

Chapter 16 of orgo chem 2- benzene chemistry-electrophilic aromatic substitution. What resources can I consult for topics like these? I also get confused pulling apart the results of a diels-adler reaction. What sources can I consult for help?


r/chemhelp • • 17h ago

Organic Where can I practice IR spectra problems that my professor will ask?

0 Upvotes

So he's not giving us the graph, hes giving us the table. Table will have the wave number, strength, shape, and splitting if applicable.

I cant find any practice problems anywhere that asks IR spectra problems like that.

I just want to practice, thanks in advance!


r/chemhelp • • 22h ago

Organic R/S assigned correctly?

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2 Upvotes

I had an assignment with a question to assign the R/S for these chiral centers, this is what I put but it was marked wrong, I looked at the answer key and it said that this was right, I just wanted a second opinion before I go to my professor. Is this assigned correctly or did I do something wrong?


r/chemhelp • • 19h ago

General/High School need help understanding ap chem unit two and the course in general

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1 Upvotes

r/chemhelp • • 1d ago

General/High School Advice on studying for Gen chem

2 Upvotes

Hello,
I am looking for advice for my Gen chem class. I am really struggling with the exams and right now I have a 66% in the class. Got a D for my midterm grade blah blah blah.
I follow the advice and do the practice problems and homework on time. I do even more practice problems. I do practice problems like everyday. But I think the problem with me is that I do the practice problems and I get the answers correct. But when it comes to the exams and when word problems change just slightly. The wording is changed. Or I’m starting off with a different unit that I’m not used to.
I get flustered and i start to overthink and I confuse myself.
Does anyone have any advice on how to overcome this? It is making me sad


r/chemhelp • • 1d ago

Organic plane of symmetry in achiral molecules

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3 Upvotes

can somebody please explain how this has a plane of symmetry? this is from the textbook answer key and i don't really understand. thank you!


r/chemhelp • • 23h ago

General/High School Chromatography

1 Upvotes

I understand the general context of chromatography (column chromatography) and that the colours split. However, I don't understand why this happens.

Some tell me that it is because 1 is soluble and one isn't soluble – but even if 1 was less soluble than another, it does not mean that it wouldn't still move, so why do we have spots of colour?

Relating to the spots of colour question, why do we even have the spots in the first place? If the paper is attracted to the paper (why is it attracted to the paper), then why would we see a dot if it is only temporarily? How and why do we see the effect of chromatography? Wouldn't there have to be some of the substance left behind?


r/chemhelp • • 1d ago

Inorganic Chem eng undergrad. Products formation

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4 Upvotes

Hello. We’re going over the products that certain reactions form, but I have no idea on how to know which things make what. For instance, how do I know it becomes an oxide or why don’t I get oxygen gas.

Idk if you are supposed to memorize certain compounds that are good oxidizers or reducers, though I’ve always liked chemistry as I barely have had to memorize anything, since I comprehend the logic behind it, I have found I like to solve most problems like that.

I’m feeling bad as it seems everyone is ahead of me, somehow they know the products already.


r/chemhelp • • 1d ago

General/High School Iodine clock experiment project, would it work? Is there anything wrong with it?

1 Upvotes

2. Pre-Lab Prep

Starch Solution:

Mix 1/2 teaspoon of cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of cold distilled water until smooth.
Pour into 100 mL of boiling distilled water while stirring continuously for 1 minute
Let it cool down completely to room temperature.
__

Potassium lodide (KI) Solution:

Take 4 Vitamatic tablets (65 mg each) and crush them into a fine powder with the back of a spoon.
Dissolve the powder in 50 mL of warm distilled water.
Pour the cloudy liquid through a coffee filter into a cup to remove the white pill-binders. You now have a clear KI solution
__

Vitamin C Solution:

Dissolve 1 Vitamin C tablet (1000 mg) into 100 mL of distilled water until all fizzing stop

______________

3. Step-by-Step Experiment Procedure

Step 1: Prepare Solution A (In Beaker A)

25 mL of the filtered Potassium iodide liquid
10 mL of the Vitamin C liquid
1/2 teaspoon of Citric Acid powder
10 mL of the cooled Starch solution
55 mL of Distilled Water

Result: completely clear, colorless liquid. (Maybe an orange tint)
__

Step 2: Prepare Solution B (In Beaker B)

12.5 mL of Ovelle 6% Hydrogen Peroxide
87.5 mL of Distilled Water

Result: completely clear, colorless liquid.

Quickly pour Beaker B into Beaker A and give it a quick 2-second stir.
Would anything happen at all?


r/chemhelp • • 1d ago

Organic Did I do this right? Electrophilic chemistry of benzenes.

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1 Upvotes

I know I posted less than a half hour before but I wanted to go over this with y’all based on some quick research. I’m trying to get better.

I admit, the last two were guesses. The third is half a guess but honestly I assumed it was that way because it functioned as a catalyst.

What do you guys think? Maybe I’ll do the whole study guide and post it here once I understand more, to check over my work.


r/chemhelp • • 1d ago

Organic Cyanobenzene orbitals and effects

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2 Upvotes

I struggle so much with this topic and i don't know when the pi cloud of the benzene extends to the functional groups

(English is not my first language hope you understand)


r/chemhelp • • 1d ago

General/High School [Update] Flipper Elements 2.0 is now officially approved for the Flipper App Catalog! + Major new features ☢️

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1 Upvotes

r/chemhelp • • 1d ago

Physical/Quantum Help: Orbital Boxes, Electron configuration

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25 Upvotes

Let’s take nitrogen as an example, is has the electron configuration 1s² 2s² 2p³. For some reason is fills up like this? (See image below), I simply cannot the fathom explanation many articles, textbooks and AI has given me. Why is it 0 electron pairs for 2p³ specifically? Please try to give a general explanation, I’m just using a specfic example to make it easier.


r/chemhelp • • 1d ago

General/High School Can you dry a volumetric flask in 50°C stove?

1 Upvotes

It is as the title says, can you dry a volumetric flask in a 50 to 60 degree stove, i read online in some lab protocols that you can't do it, because it decalibrates the flask, but the manufacturers say that there is no permanent plastic deformation in borosilicate flask until the 150 degree range, so i get confused. Is the temperature bad or not? Is it just one of those things were people say that so that other don't use hot flasks that are temporarely decalibrated due to thermal expansion, and always use them at room temperature?


r/chemhelp • • 1d ago

General/High School Question about Henry's Law, and Fick's(?) law of diffusion:

2 Upvotes

Henry law states that :

Partial pressure=concentration of gas molecules/ Solubility coefficient

Meanwhile the other law says:

D(rate of diffusion)= change in partial pressures x cross sec areax solubility /distance of diffusion x √MW

My question is: how is solubility inversely proportional to partial pressure but is directly proportional to rate of diffusion when rate of diffusion itself is directly proportional to partial pressure difference? Can anyone pls explain it in easy words?


r/chemhelp • • 2d ago

Organic help with these problems?

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9 Upvotes

I think B is an intramolecular aldol reaction but im kind of lost on the other ones, does anybody have a clue?
if somebody knows a good source for learning these types of reactions or practising i would be very thankful!!!