I’m really at my absolute breaking point and on the verge of quitting. I started a Master's program in chemistry with a different Bachelor's background, and my previous school’s organic chemistry teaching was a total disaster. The professor used a "flipped learning" technique that resulted in most of the class failing, after which they just lowered the passing criteria so the rest of us barely scraped by.

Now, in my Master's, I’ve had to take Bachelor-level organic chemistry courses because the Master's-level stuff is absolute Greek to me. The problem is, I still don't understand anything. The basic introductory course isn't even until next year, but I’m required to pass an advanced organic chemistry course before that just to take Master's courses. My graduation is already going to be delayed.

I am trying so hard, but nothing is sticking. I try to read a chapter of the textbook thoroughly, but it feels like there aren't enough hours in the day. I read so slowly, and this mental block just makes everything worse. To be clear: I don't have a learning disability, and my GPA in other subjects—like analytical chemistry—is actually really good.

I do the exercises, and I even went as far as hiring private tutors. The first one smelled like stale alcohol and understood nothing, and my current one spends 60 minutes on a single problem and has to Google every second question.

I am so desperate. Nowadays, just opening the textbook makes me start crying. My brain is completely blocked, and I'm seriously on the verge of changing my major.

I don't want to believe that I'm just someone who can't learn organic chemistry, but I just can't take it anymore... sobbing...I've tried going through the basics on my own, but the second I have to think about reaction mechanisms at the electron level, I just freeze and can't do it.

Please, any advice or perspective would mean the world right now. I feel completely lost. A good YouTube-channel recommendations are also welcome.

The beaches of southern California are pretty rich in magnetite. Ever since I was a kid, I've loved the probably-a-low-key-Autism-symptom of collecting & refining the rich black grains with magnets, by hand. But we never really *did* anything with it 🤷

And then my GF asked what COULD we do with it ... So we bought some aluminum powder, potassium permanganate, and magnesium chips on Amazon, and made thermite.

It took some finagling to get it started, but gawdam did it work well when we did. And now we wanna make some cool shit, and trying sand casting with it.

The magnetite is super easy to collect... I can get about 5-10lbs per hour, pure enough to ignite, just sitting on the beach with a big magnet. Zero hassle.

But aluminum powder costs money. Ball mills are too noisy, so I'm gonna try a food processor and a 325-mesh lab screen, and see if we can't make some of that.

Has AI affected your line of work or research a lot, like in math and software engineering, or you feel like this is one of the fields which is highly agnostic to being taken over by AI?

I have an oxygen concentrator which is fairly old, i opened the sieve and the zeolite is red/brown at the top inch and white below. I am unsure if it is sodium or lithium too.

Why did you get a PhD? I am curious and looking for inspiration. Do you absolutely love chemistry? Is that the only way? All answers welcome :)

I'm about to start a PhD in organic synthesis. I'm comfortable in the lab, but a lot of my undergrad theory has gone fuzzy because I haven't used it since. Things like orbitals and hybridization, or the details of mechanisms like Diels-Alder, I'd struggle to explain off the top of my head now.

When I hear people talk about this stuff, it sounds like everyone has it memorised, and I worry that I'm not cut out for this if I can't recall the basics.

So, honestly:

1. Do you still look things up or re-read the fundamentals, even as a PhD student or later?

2. Do you keep a notebook or notes of the basics you need to refer back to?

3. Did you feel like this at the start?

Hearing what's normal would help a lot, as well as any tips for the first few months. Thanks!

Does anyone have any good resources on low-temperature geochemistry that they'd recommend? I'm going to be taking a course on it for my Masters next semester, and just wanted to read up a little bit ahead of that class.

So I am doing a hs experiment that includes microplastics. The ideal sample would be Polystyrene microspheres. However, many websites list them at over $100 for a small sample. I was wondering if there are any cheap places I could get them or alternatives. I already checked with my school, and they could not provide any. Also, I want to clarify that I am hoping to get into SSEF or a similar science fair with this, so I feel that breaking pieces of Styrofoam wouldn't be professional. When I searched on Google, it said I could use ultra-fine red plastic powder, but would this actually be a good option?

I'm interested in one since I've been interested in chemistry for a very long time, but I'm highly skeptical about them. They could very easily use a fake element, and I'd never know because it's behind acrylic. Most metals look the same. For only 50 dollars, I highly doubt they are actually putting precious metals in there. I also doubt the periodic table has actual uranium ore or a thoriated welding rod. The seller isn't selling scientific stuff, so the seller probably isn't commited to selling a legitimate product.

Posted with the mods' OK. I'm a third-year industrial engineering student at IQS in Barcelona, and I built https://orgodraw.com because the naming exercises I had were static answer keys that couldn't tell me why I was wrong.

- Free drawing: draw anything and see its name, formula and functional groups.

- Draw from the name: you get an IUPAC name and draw the structure by dragging between dots. The drawing is compared as a molecule, not as a picture, so any correct depiction counts, and a wrong one gets told what's off (missing carbon, substituent on the wrong carbon, wrong functional group…).

- Name the structure: pick the right name out of four; every wrong option says why it's wrong ("numbered from the wrong end", "that's a different compound").

About 160 exercises from alkanes to E/Z and r/S, in English, Spanish, French and German, plus printable worksheets with answer keys for teachers. Free, no sign-up, works on phones.

If you teach or tutor orgo, I'd really value hearing where a name or an explanation is wrong or unclear.

I recently published an interactive simulator that models diffusion profiles and cyclic voltammetric responses at ultramicroelectrodes and small electrodes.

In my experience, planar diffusion at macroelectrodes is extensively covered in electrochemistry. However, the same models are sometimes incorrectly applied to smaller electrodes, where radial diffusion has a big contribution.

The post explores how electrode size, microfluidic channel height and scan rate affect diffusion and cyclic voltammetry, with animations and an interactive simulator.

Have a look!

https://electrochemeisbasics.blogspot.com/2026/10/radial-diffusion.html

I’m not sure if this kind of post is allowed here, but it’s the only community I could think of that might be of help. My grandfather was a brilliant man and worked as a chemist for 3M for most of his career. I believe he worked extensively with film and had a patent on some kind of photographic paper. He was a huge influence in my life, although I didn’t go into science myself (I work in mental health), and unfortunately he passed away a year-and-a-half ago. I found his thesis recently while moving, and as a non-chemist, I don’t understand a word of it. I have no family left who knew my grandfather well or would be able to converse about this. I just want to know: since this was published back in 1964, a lot of time has passed, so is this information pretty well-known today? Would it have been considered innovative during its time? Is this something that could be easily researched with our technology today? I know this work basically took over his life at the time, and I don’t think future generations will ever understand the dedication it took to do research without the internet.

Anyway, I’d be grateful for any thoughts. I don’t understand the subject matter or what he was trying to prove, but I’m interested in knowing the relevance of his research in 1964 compared to today.

Edit: Wow, thank you so much for all of the appreciation for my grandfather’s work! I’m slowly getting around to all the comments. It was his greatest wish that others would come to understand and love chemistry and science the way he did. Also, my grandma did indeed type all of this! At the time they had a four-year-old (my mom) and a newborn (my uncle), so I really don’t know how they managed! They moved to Italy for several years after he finished this thesis, where my grandfather began his career for 3M. My grandparents lived a long life together—almost seventy years—and I miss them every day. They were the best, kindest, and most dedicated people I’ve ever known.

The three I know of are mercury, "hydrocarbons" and "silicon oils"

I don't know what specific hydrocarbons or silicon oils, and I haven't been able to discern whether or not hydrocarbon oils are even usable to vacate air specifically from a system.

I've also heard some hearsay that distilled WD-40 is usable as diffusion pump fluid for a DIY machine.

What specific fluids work in a diffusion pump for what purposes? Is their a guide? Can hydrocarbon oils be used to vacate oxygen-containing internal atmosphere?

If so, what hydrocarbons specifically?

For clarity sake, assume I'm building a diffusion pump from scratch to make vacuum electronics similarly from scratch rather than investing in a professionally built machine. Because that's the end goal, though still hypothetical at this time. (I'm saving up for a workshop and have a long list of science projects ahead of me. This is one or more of them. And I'd prefer not to have a glass vat of boiling mercury on my property if it can be avoided.)

So Ive seen nile red using boric acid and methanol and lighting it on fire on the fingertips of a glove hes wearing. I wanna do the same but I wanna ofc make sure that I do it safely since Ive heard that even "heat-safe" gloves can burn ur skin through them. So ye how do i do that safely? Also i cant ger boric acid so im gonna use copper sulfate instead. Ive heard it burns green, but Ive also seen someone mixing it with hydrochloric acid and then it burns blue. Can it be used for both colors or will copper sulfate only burn green or blue, and then ill have to use something else for the other color. I really wanna try colored fire. Also if anyone knows a safe alternative thats easy to get to make red fire, like lithium, but safer thatd be awesome

I started studying chemistry and general science ( physics, inorg, org & math ) a year ago as a way of helping me improve my grades, which worked, a lot and now after counting my notes, I've reached ~90 pages of notes. 80 pages were written by 1 pen alone, which sadly tired out and "passed away" 2 weeks ago and has now been replaced by a newer pen.

I'm currently on thermochemistry and finished taking notes on electron configuration ( General base coniguration, orbital diagrams, orbitals and energy level diagrams )

Hope you guys have a nice weekend! :)

Anyone have an image or video of CuCl₂ + K₂CO₃ reacting, or at least just the products/precipitate? Thanks a bunch!

Especially when they are present in cyclic esters in conjugation with a carbonyl which can easily give the illusion of a vinyl group instead.

I've been fascinated by disappearing polymorphs since first reading about them. See if you can spot the Three Little Pigs reference masquerading as pseudochemistry in this story.