Do we have an organic chemical lab area at DMS? I have some things to purify and analyze related to tea and wine alkaloids.
yes, that’s the main usage of the science committees area in the back.
I would encourage one too come out on a open house day and speak with Ashley from @Team_Science .
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No we do not. We do not have the proper safety equipment to deal with organic compounds. The fume hood can only be used for acids and bases. Sorry for the delayed response.
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I understand. I would not personally want to deal with toxic or carcinogenic stuff like benzene, etc. Maybe some moderately volatile solvents like acetone. Flammability would be the risk. Acids and bases are a start. Might need a small amount of something like heptane for separation purification - is about like gasoline in volatility and is non-toxic if you aren’t planning on drinking it. Looking forward to seeing the spectrophotometer if we end up getting it.
when are you going to be at the space next?
Hello. We certainly intend to do plenty of chemistry at the makerspace, of course with sensitivity to all of Ashleys concerns about safety. We even have given classes in distillation of essential oils, as a good introduction to basic synthetic chem lab operations. I am sure there is nothing in tea that is likely to destroy the makerspace nor harm you personally.
YES, chemistry is SCIENCE. INDISPENSIBLE SCIENCE.
Some say the mother of all sciences.
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Ashley, of course we can deal with organic compounds, which include substances like the glycerol in Josh’s soap class, the DNA and enzymes in the pcr class, and pretty much everything else we would do chemistry on in that space. Not to mention all the compounds of which the people walking into the space are composed. I think you mean we are not well set up for the very small, exceptional category of organics that include poisonous, highly volatile, explosive, etc compounds. The alkaloids in tea are not dangerous. You can drink the stuff. Neither are small quantities of solvents like heptane any more dangerous than many things used routinely at the space. At present, we do not have anything that offers the wonderful creative potential for grisly mayhem that other committees like welding, lasercutting, woodworking, and jewelry offer; when we do acquire serious tools with capacity to do damage, we will need to require a qualifying course to use those tools just as all the other committees do. I certainly hope we never shy away from any capability that members would like the space to have and that our ingenuity can accommodate.
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That would be mathematics/physics… 
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Thank you for your response, Chalo.
This is why I am trying to make plans to meet with this person to make sure we are on the same page.
Do we have a rotovap?
We just got a rotevap donated by biosynthesis, Kobin has it, but it has not yet been delivered to the space. We unfortunately do not yet have vacuum, but pretty sure some group here has a pump we can borrow. For a cold trap we will just use dry ice/acetone. We also are getting an IEC centrifuge which should be handy for spinning down precipitates from tea in up to 2L volumes. We alraedy have fuges that will do smaller volumes (eppendorf tubes 1.5 ml x up to 12 tubes. )
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certainly more fundamental than chemistry, but maybe not historically first. I am counting smelting copper and bronze, soap making, pottery firing, etc as chemistry.
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Sounds good. I have a small, portable medical vacuum unit but it’s intended for higher volume, light vacuum. I think it gets down to about, 50 torr at zero flow. Vacuum units for HVAC pumpdown can be had pretty cheaply that will hit less than a torr at low vol, I believe.
Can the proposed spectrophotometer work in an IR range that covers IR spec for identifying compounds?
Please see the post on the spectrophotometer. The range is 200 to 850. Can be extended to 1100 nm max. Plenty of compounds have signatures in that range. Especially Tannins in tea. Plenty don’t, but can be revealed by interactions and reactions with colored compounds.
We may be getting a donation of a compact FTIR spectrophotometer. Keep fingers crossed.
Got it. Thank you. Sorry, missed that reply.
The biohacker in me keeps popping up the older I get!
Old thread but rather than start another one . . .
Would anyone care to comment on interests in a small organic lab effort? Gonzalo seemed to have more background than most. His link has disappeared.
I am interested in first of all being able to accurately quantify and identify organic compounds using common instruments. This might include IR spectroscopy, gas chromatography, mass spectrometry and probably others. I look at these instruments available on surplus market, sometimes for almost free, but I just don’t know much about them or even enough to warrant purchase of a rather large instrument just to experiment with. Would also want to be able to carry out basic purification techniques such as recrystallization and chromatography. Biosafety cabinets come up on medical surplus auction frequently and mostly go for the minimum bid of $50 since they are so big, nobody wants them. They can serve as a workspace mostly. I would not anticipate work with anything more hazardous than small amounts of hexane or other solvent that is also used throughout DMS and elsewhere for a variety of crafts, work and hobbies. Most biosafety hoods have in addition a laminar flow component for sterile preparation of sensitive biologic components such as parenteral drugs and agar plates but can be used for dust free manipulation of sensitive equipment - open hard drives maybe? IDK. Would offer options for microbiology and mycology in that regard.
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Before we do any serious chemistry we need to get our fume hood working. I can get into details if you would like to help with this project 
There’s also the possibility of a donated mass spec, and I have most of high pressure liquid chromatography system in my storage unit.
The issue with purchasing cheap equipment at auctions is that it’s usually broken or obsolete, can costs thousands to repair, or the software is not included and requires a special license key to operate.
We already have a working laminar flow hood and it’s used as a sterile environment for biological work. Happy to show you around on Sunday after our meeting at 2:30.
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This the ultimate bad science take that makes 99% of scientists cringe uncontrollably.
This is one of the flaws of folks opening up a necro-thread. Mr Anderson has passed on.
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