I also want to take the time to offer to answer any questions about #Chem #Chemistry #xray #Crystallography or #Crystals in general, or being a #science #Gradstudent
@aschmitz First thing I would consult a chemist. Most identification techniques require a fair bit of training.
NMR is the traditional organic identification method. Lots of flexibility and you can get a lot if data from it.
If you can grow crystals of it, you can probably do x-ray crystallography, which is your most unambiguous method.
@aschmitz High Res GC ms, like a time of flight or such will get you the molecular mass, which if you have a good idea of what you've made, but works best in conjunction with other techniques.
@Canageek Cool, thanks!
@aschmitz What are you doing that you have organic side products outside a lab? Industry?
@Canageek Ha, mostly just speculation about a minimal lab setup to play with chemistry. (My definition of "minimal" may have strayed a bit here.)
@Canageek Malin: I’m learning about minerals and mineraloids (side interest) and am having a hard time understanding the difference between amorphous and crystalline minerals. We know a bit about chemistry, enough to understand what silicates and oxides are made of, but I’m a little unclear on the physical concept of crystalline structure.
@thehouse Crystalline materials have short and long range order: Think of a NaCl salt crystal. Every Na is surrounded by Cl. If you look at another part of the crystal you see the same thing, and there are unbroken alternating line of NaClNaCl going all the way across the crystal.
@thehouse Amorphous crystals don't have long range order. Like glass. The molecules in them just kind of lie however they want. So if you move over a ways in the crystal you don't get any kind of pattern between them.
@Canageek Calvin: Thanks very much. That makes sense to us. Malin bought a piece of hematite in Maple Ridge yesterday that attracted a kitchen magnet and she’s also wondering if it’s true hematite or hematine. She tried reading up on magnetism but it’s a little above our level of physics.
@thehouse Yeah. I'm allowed to sell use of our X-ray diffraction gear if you REALLY want to know
@Canageek Cal: Oh shit! How much is it? Can we bring some crystals we bought in Arizona? We suspect some of them are fake.
@thehouse I'll ask my boss when I'm back at work. Do you know how to interpret the data yourself, or would you need me to do that?
@Canageek Cal: We have no idea how to data. 😂 We really don’t know much about mineralogy. Minerology? Minerals.
@thehouse Ok, then you'll have to pay me to do data analysis. Shouldn't be hard of In comparing against known minerals though.
@Canageek Cal: Fantastic. Thanks so much. 🙂
@thehouse Keep in mind, this is not likely to be cheap...
@thehouse Plus you'd have to break a small sample off...
@Canageek Cal: Ah, gotcha. Would be helpful to know how much it costs. 🙂
@thehouse I'll find out tuesday
@thehouse Is this for research? Boss is going to ask what prof you work for
@Canageek Malin: No, it’s personal. We’re not a TA or anything. Just an undergrad.
@thehouse That will be trickier then
@Canageek Malin: Also, we attend SFU as well! Small world!
@Canageek You have perfectly coincidental timing! Let's say I've produced an organic compound via some process, and wish to know what else I've produced or left over. What's a good way to do this? Bonus points for relatively inexpensive, but I'm focused more on accuracy. Knowing very little, I was looking generally at GC MS, but are there better options?