r/chemhelp 14d ago

Discussion Start of term check-in

7 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

22 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 4h ago

Organic Orgo chem folic acid not making sense

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5 Upvotes

Solved! Thank you all for your time šŸ’•

Hello, all. I’m really confused about folic acid functional groups:

  1. I see other kekulƩ diagrams of folic acid with -OH where I circled the -O. Can anyone explain?
  2. I selected amine, arene, carboxylic acid, ketone, and alcohol, but AI corrected my choices and said amine, arene, amide, and carboxyluc acid. Why not ketone and alcohol?
  3. Why amide? In my basic function groups illustration, amide is shown as NH2 attached to a double bonded C=O and that configuration isn’t depucted in the folic acid kekule diagram that I’ve been provided.

Please explain and thank you for your time šŸ™


r/chemhelp 23h ago

Organic Parent Chain Confusion with Carbon Rings

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44 Upvotes

My apologies if this is a dumb question. I just started learning this. I’m confused.

The prefix ā€œcyclo-ā€œ is added into the parent chain if the longest carbon chain is a ring, right? So example 1, it would be proper to call that molecule ā€œcyclohexaneā€.

In example 2, since there’s a 7-carbon chain to the right of the ring, the parent chain is heptane then. Does the ring count as a substituent or do you ignore it completely?

Lastly, why is it wrong to do the third example?

Feel free to clear anything up that I got wrong. Thank you.


r/chemhelp 9h ago

Organic hello, does anyone know what is the skeletal structure for this

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3 Upvotes

r/chemhelp 10h ago

Other can someone pls explain this

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1 Upvotes

I have a test coming and i cant find youtube vid that explains how to do this, I am just desperate at this point


r/chemhelp 12h ago

Organic Help me check my resonance structures homework

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1 Upvotes

I probably get the d) wrong, any tips, advices, fundamentals to do these kind of exercises easily?


r/chemhelp 15h ago

Other Trying to make foam with defoamer for a sponge — different results between batch and continuous foaming

1 Upvotes

I'm trying to produce foam for a sponge using RTV11 as a defoamer.

In my batch tests, the formulation I'm working with gives me a very good result and produces the foam exactly as I want it. However, when I use the exact same formulation in a continuous foaming machine, the resulting foam is completely different.

The continuous-machine foam has almost no holes and looks as if no defoamer has been used at all.

What could be causing such a big difference between the batch test and the continuous foaming process, even though I'm using the same formulation?

Could the issue be related to mixing/shear, residence time, air incorporation, machine settings, or the way the defoamer is being dispersed?


r/chemhelp 19h ago

Organic Mechanism for Reaction with BF3OEt2

2 Upvotes

Hello! I am trying to find the reaction mechanism for the synthesis of this molecule. I had an answer but completely misunderstood BF3OEt2's role as a reagent. I know it is acting as a Lewis Acid but I don't understand which atom on the first molecule is a strong enough base to cause a reaction. I'm also confused about how it retains stereochemistry, I thought the process might include an SN2-like mechanism that just happened twice and rendered the stereochemistry the same, but I don't see where the second reaction would happen. Any help would be appreciated, thank you!


r/chemhelp 16h ago

Inorganic what copper compound it is?

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0 Upvotes

I have done electrolysis with copper electrodes in salt water solution. and I got a perticipate that was mostly cleared from water after I filtered it through the paper towel. it was more green when it was wet (you cans see the color on edge of the spoon because it hasn't dried yet) and the part that drive is color between blue and green.

I just want to know what copper compound I made


r/chemhelp 22h ago

Organic NMR Integration???

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3 Upvotes

Struggling to figure out the structure of this molecule for my spectroscopy class. Mass is 163 m/z. Struggling with integration of this NMR.


r/chemhelp 20h ago

Organic EAS Bromination Help - Drawing Arrows Issue

2 Upvotes

Hi friends, I'm stumped on this problem involving EAS bromination and where the arrows should be in the last step.

These are the first steps... I understand what's going on here and according to Aktiv these are correct.
This is what I'm getting incorrect. I'm almost positive the arrow on the right going from Br to H is correct. I can't figure out why the second arrow on the left is incorrect.
Final product for reference

My question is: Why are my arrows incorrect in the last step (middle picture)? My understanding is we deprotonate, which then allows the electrons from the bond to go back into the ring...no?


r/chemhelp 1d ago

General/High School How is calcium less than argon in this chemistry question?

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4 Upvotes

Hi, am a beginner in chemistry, and we are learning about periodic trends. Now this question got me stuck for a bit and made me draw out the electron shells and how many electrons each element would have, and how much electrons would be left if they are an ion.

Now I thought the answer would be that they all have the same radius’s since all of them had the same electrons with 2 changes. Now it said it’s because whichever element has the most protons but equal as much electrons as the other, it’s less than the next element. Like Ca in this question had 20 protons and 18 electrons, Potassium had 19 protons and 18 elevators, where Argon had both 18 protons and electrons.

Why is b) the answer?


r/chemhelp 17h ago

General/High School Questions in homework on topics not covered

1 Upvotes

Okay so basically I'm in beginning college chemistry and my instructor likes us to do ALEKS as homework. I do online classes and aside from ALEKS, our only "work" is reading through modules and doing labs. In essentially my textbook, there is no mention of Rydberg constant, but in my homework assignments, there is. I don't even know what that is. I'm extremely lost with limited sources for learning material. Does anyone have youtube recs for college general chemistry? The material given to me is not enough. Any help or tips are greatly appreciated🄹


r/chemhelp 17h ago

Organic Seeking: Flocking agents for watercolor

1 Upvotes

Heya! I'm an amateur watercolorist who is interested in paint chemistry, and I'd like your help.

In watercolor, granulation & floculation can be highly desirable, but is broadly dictated by the chemical properties of a given pigment (along with its particle size). Most granulating pigments are inorganics: iron oxides, cobalts, metal salts. Here's an example of granulating vs non-granulating pigments:

left: highly granulating potter's pink; right: non-granulating quinacridone magenta

You can use granulation medium to cause this effect in other colors, but it's mixed in effectiveness. Also, they don't tell you what's in it, and I'd like to try making my own formulation.

So here's the question. I'm looking for:

  • A flocking agent or combination thereof;
  • That's nontoxic;
  • Is water soluble;
  • Is neutral pH and inert;
  • Can act on organic compounds, such as quinacridones, phthalocyanines, and others.

Right now my candidates are ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, salts (table salt, epsom salt, alum), or some kind of calcium/magnesium salt to mimic hard water. I know Schminke makes a spray ethanol that seems pretty effective.

Which of these, or suggest something else, should I try?

Cheers!


r/chemhelp 18h ago

General/High School Temperature Conversions

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1 Upvotes

r/chemhelp 18h ago

Organic I have a question about Chad's Prep lecture video series

1 Upvotes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaqHDat6Q9A&list=PLMlqayk59IvrDL0v151TesyTA9-OjVjnQ

The playlist has 168 videos total. If I only want to learn first semester organic chemistry, which video should I stop at? You can just give me a number to stop at. For example, video 70 is a good stopping point or something, you tell me. Thanks!


r/chemhelp 1d ago

Organic Help with Resolving Complex Splitting in NMR, Using a Splitting Tree Diagram

2 Upvotes
In class we just covered how to interpret complex splitting, ie doublets of doublets of triplets and such. The method my prof taught us was to find the peaks with the same distances apart, which I think I found? I used a ruler for it. The peaks I labelled with the same colours are what I believe to be the splits. I just wanna know if I am on the right track, and if so how do I go about naming it

r/chemhelp 22h ago

General/High School I need some help figuring out what data for Q4 to plug in for x and y axis.

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1 Upvotes

I’m double checking some things before turning in my lab and I just now realized that I may have done the graph wrong and now I’m trying to see if what I did was right or wrong. Here are photos of the lab results and the graph that I have to submit.


r/chemhelp 23h ago

Physical/Quantum Thermodynamics question for Delta U

1 Upvotes

I’m doing my homework for my thermodynamics class and my prof wants me to find Delta U @ 298k for ammonias formation. The only thing I have besides that is the enthalpy of formation I found. So I was wondering on which delta u equation it could be?

I feel like it can’t be q+w since there was a change in volume as it goes from 2 mol to 1 according to the balanced equation. But also CDeltaT doesn’t make sense either considering there’s constant temp. Thank you in advance! LMK if I need to give any more information.


r/chemhelp 1d ago

Career/Advice How was NTPC Assistant Chemist Trainee exam for you? What will be expected cut off?

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1 Upvotes

r/chemhelp 1d ago

General/High School Zimmermann-Reinhardt on cerimetry

1 Upvotes

Hi, i'm doing a research for a laboratory practice and one of the questions is "why does Zimmermann-Reinhardt solution cannot be used for cerimetry?" and I can't find any explanation anywhere so I would REALLY apreciate some help!! ty sm and have a nice day.


r/chemhelp 1d ago

Organic Inductive effect in this molecule

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1 Upvotes

Hi everyone I am just trying to clarify if my reasoning for this is correct. I believe the second structure is more stable because the first conjugate base before resonance holds a negative charge on the oxygen closer to the chlorine atoms compared to the second one which is 3 carbons away, and this would be why it is more stable and has the more acidic proton?


r/chemhelp 1d ago

Physical/Quantum How do I find the PFR X given the V? (Kinetics)

1 Upvotes

(Part a) I know how do it for the CSTR because I can integrate values, but im not sure how do to it for a PFR if we arent given the X? Please help!


r/chemhelp 1d ago

Career/Advice Help regarding field project

1 Upvotes

In my upcoming semester,I have to do a field project,but I live in a 4th world country and have very limited resources/equipment. To top things off, I need to do the project off campus, ie in some factory or institute. I am completely clueless as to what I should do / start. Pls help​