Where is the best place to buy chemicals?

[@NurdRage]

Once you're far enough up the learning curve of chemistry, restrictions become mere inconveniences. You can make anything from anything else, as long as they have the same elements. A good supplier just reduces the barriers between you and what you want. You cannot be stopped if you really want it.

[@Kumquat_Lord]

Watching Ex&F turn three cheap chemicals into isocyanognen tetraazide was impressive and a very good demonstration of this.

[@mathbc1984]

True, the KZbinr sreetips extract and refine plated gold with household chemical brand. Exemple of his video : Karat Gold Refine With OTC Chemicals NO NITRIC

[@Grak70]

DCM, phosphorus pentoxide, and lithium aluminum hydride videos drop when?

[@mathbc1984]

@@Auroral_Anomaly NurdRage is a ph.D in chemist, a chemical doctor. He know how to synthesize molecule.

[@stevengill1736]

You mean, you can get it if you really want it? Sounds like a great name for a song! ;*[}

[@frtzkng]

I am very glad so many out of the chemistry community contributed to an EU survey which, if left ignored, would have banned even more chemicals for private use. The participation is often less than 10 people, and we took that number over 200. That said, if you're an EU citizen and want to do amateur chemistry, either set up your own small business, have business connections or give up.

[@That_Chemist]

Yeah people should setup a small business

[@DrakkarCalethiel]

Yeah, doing ANYTHING chemisty releated has become next to impossible in the EU as an individual. Only wait till they ban stuff like acetone and HCL, it will happen.

[@tatianatub]

ask your friendly local farmer 😉

[@siiluviilu]

I mean registering a business only costs like 30 euros in my country and it's pretty quick, not that bad

[@frtzkng]

@@siiluviilu Was only 15 for me, but the local administration offices only confirmed my registration after 4 weeks. But hey, now I can at least _possess_ my stuff legally lol and as a nice bonus, I can also shop for tools at Würth; while Würth is expensive their customer service is absolutely top notch

[@dejjal8683]

Ok, I work for a lab chemical supplier so I'll give you some pointers; 1. Diethyl Ether is a DEA List 2 chemical so shipping that from the US to Canada involves some paper wrangling but it's doable. 2. Shipping chemicals legally means finding the right carrier, Fedex and XPO hate 6.1 Toxic, ABF will ship almost anything except for HF. 2a. Not everything can ship overnight. 2b. Stuff like Bromine, Nitric Acid, and Iodomethane require special packaging. 3. PLEASE find an SDS for a chemical before you buy it. 4. There are chemicals that require you filling out a form, stuff like Carbon Tet, Grignard, and certain reducing agents.

[@douglassmalls6934]

I remember ordering gallons of diethyl ether not only for home chemistry but to have some fun with a rag. The vendor said they messed up and it didn't ship so they gave a refund. The next day it arrived and i got like $300 worth of ether for free. Was pretty cool

[@quint3ssent1a]

If all else fails, diethyl ether is relatively easy to do yourself, the hard part is to clean it so it will be pure (not an azeotrope)

[@davidg4288]

@@quint3ssent1a Diethyl ether is in starting fluid but it's mixed with (if I remember correctly) normal hexane. I damn near knocked myself out with the stuff trying to start a snow blower in a garage with the door wide open. A big double garage door. I was more worried about the fire hazard, but the fumes are potent and the can was nowhere near my face. I just drain the tank and carb and refill with fresh gasoline now.

[@LeChuckize]

Diethyl ether tends to form peroxides over time. So in case you prepareit yourself, take car3 and add a stabilizing agent. Peroxide testing strips are a must! ​@@quint3ssent1a

[@chemistryofquestionablequa6252]

I’ve heard horror stories about shipping liquid bromine, to the point where most companies refuse to ship it. Who lets you ship bromine?

[@vancouveropenbsd985]

I used to do ordering for a research lab. My job description included the phrase, "If shipping charges are outrageous, call up vendor and yell at them." Half of my job involved doing just that with Fisher. Oftentimes I could guilt trip them into giving us a break by saying, "Look, we're not a major pharma company or big university. We are just trying to scrape by on a tiny little NIH grant." Eventually I got tapped to do a fully standards compliant Hazardous Materials Inventory Statement. See, the fire department told our lab director, "Until we know what's in your lab, if a fire breaks out, we're just going to stand on the sidewalk and enjoy the fireworks." I'm pretty sure Sigma-Aldrich doesn't sell to individuals at all.

[@That_Chemist]

It’s honestly horrendous that anyone has to spend time doing that - they need to stop or fail as a business at this point.

[@NetRolller3D]

IIRC it's even worse than "not selling" to individuals - they _call the police_ on anyone not approved trying to buy from them.

[@asakayosapro]

Sigma Aldrich is what happens when you let a sigma cook for too long. They end up breaking bad, imploding and becoming the complete opposite.

[@victorygarden556]

@@NetRolller3Doh shit 😂

[@florianbeck4283]

@@NetRolller3D Not with Sigma but with a smaller supplier this actually happened to me before. The police even came to check out my lab. Not fun at all, but at least the police officers were from some special drug task force and had actual chemistry knowledge. So they quickly realised I’m not a thread. But I’ve heard horrendous stories from other people. Still, you’re a suspect of making illegal drugs if you (try to) order a few litres of standard solvents? That’s pretty problematic, if you ask me.

[@xXCatalystic37Xx]

Every home chemist needs this as a reference.

[@That_Chemist]

make sure you share it :)

[@alexandero9936]

I am a home chemist. I put a mentos into coke last night and now I wholeheartedly believe I'm ready to replicate nuclear fission in my kitchen sink (because safety first)

[@Mediocre_Soup]

slap this list next to the periodic table

[@anomonyous]

​@@alexandero9936Yeah, don't do that on the kitchen table, you want to be able to flush any stray molecules down the drain. Good on you to think of safety!

[@herrbrahms]

Excellent point. I marked this video as a favorite for that exact reason.

[@jsalsman]

Back in the 80s there were "book brokers" who for a high three-figure annual fee would allow you to call them and query their reasonably up-to-date catalog database (by voice only) of their ~7,000 industrial process chem vendor quotations. They were well worth it for all but small labs.

[@borwinbandelow2781]

Our uni uses a home written software for that and it works like a charm

[@helldad4689]

@@borwinbandelow2781 I wonder how hard it would be to write an app which just makes calls to the databases for all the suppliers in this vid, for all the most commonly needed lab chems, and spits them out in order of price/distance/shipping time/other paramaters. Probably a pain in the butt, but it'd make a lot of lives easier.

[@tandemdwarf745]

If you're in the U.S., Ace Hardware is far and away the best hardware store chemical supplier. Lower prices (especially compared to Home Depot), often continue to stock recently discontinued items for up to an entire year or two, wider selection, and most importantly, by far the best and cheapest readily available sulfuric acid. The Rooto Sulfuric Acid Drain Cleaner is cheap as dirt and high enough purity I often don't even distill it.

[@nobodynoone2500]

I find ace is priced a little bit higher, but does stock a suprising amount. Different stores have different selection as most are independently owned.

[@sciloj]

Various farm stores (Wilco, Coastal Farm & Ranch, etc.) are also good local sources. Some livestock veterinary supply chemicals and tools are available as well.

[@TGFMusic]

Came here to say Ace as well. That’s where I get 80% of my solvents. Heptane, sulfuric, MEK, EtOAc, HCL, Acetone, Xylene, IPA, etc. they have so many. I would say they are a little more expensive than Home Depot or Walmart or whatever, but they have more of what you want and it’s usually easier to find in one section.

[@Kumquat_Lord]

Ace still has bromine pool tablets

[@BigMyz]

⁠What is Heptane in besides Ether at Ace? Same with MEK? I was told by an employee that once the backroom stock is gone of MEK they won't be getting anymore. This was also a weird ace inside of another weird store. All the indys don't have much beside acetone and 99%IPA and Tone.

[@VinsCool]

Ah yes, Ligma-Baldrich

[@cutthroat399]

*backdoor science

[@saucychicken502]

Ligma Baldcawk

[@NabilBreda]

Smegma-Aldrich

[@IAmPaigeAT]

lol

[@haabyalexis]

He went wild with the thumbnail I swear

[@PhantomGamerMods]

As someone who’s never done any chemistry ever, I watched the whole video and can confirm this is the tier list of all time.

[@noname-80lbs]

Good you like It . But listen to the master Nurd Rage Make it all,buy nothig

[@kaosumaru]

May this meme never die.

[@wuwucrafter1693]

Yes I have waited for this. Sadly, almost everything fun is banned in Germany

[@WooShell]

You can order a ton of chemicals through your local pharmacy (Apotheke).. and even with their markup, it often turns out rather affordable. I've done that for many years with obscure chemicals for photography processing, as some older film stock requires materials not available anymore from the big photo lab suppliers.

[@wuwucrafter1693]

Yea I have done that for Sodium hydroxide already and they charged me like 7€ for 10g. Also most basic compounds like sulfuric or nitric acid are only allowed at very low concentrations and I’d guess they make it hard for you to concentrate them (by adding stuff with a higher boiling point)

[@frtzkng]

@@WooShell I'm on my way to become a pharmacist and have worked in pharmacies before. 9 out of 10 times, pharmacies will refuse to sell anyone chemicals because the paperwork associated behind the desk is not worth taking on. We have to document *EVERYTHING,* no matter how asinine mandatory documentation would be.

[@frtzkng]

Those restrictions are little more than a large inconvenience to deter people (which in itself is a horrible thing to do for citizen science!). But if you register a business and hgive proper reasons for use on a document (Endverbleibserklärung), you can buy almost everything as a business. Registering one is a one-time €15 fee and as long as you do not generate more than €20,000 in revenue per year, you are exempt from business taxes. Also, please store your chemicals safely at least _somewhat_ in accordance with safety laws, just in case someone ever comes in for inspection. But you should already do that by default.

[@WaffleStaffel]

@@frtzkng Don't you also have to have a minimum revenue of a couple thousand per year to be considered a legitimate business?

[@LabCoatz_Science]

Walmart is pretty much S-tier here in the states, tbh. Hard to beat a liter of additive-free concentrated sulfuric acid for $5, and they also a ton of other useful chems in-stores (sodium hydroxide, HCl, glycerin, methanol, etc). Plus, they sell reasonably pure nitromethane online!

[@justarandomname420]

The Wal-Mart online availability is great.

[@mrvwbug4423]

Don't hobby shops usually sell Nitromethane in small containers for RC car engines?

[@philidor9657]

@@JoeRogansForehead I heard nitromethane burns a cool color. Dump some more in the river and try setting it on fire to see if it's true!

[@davidbarts6144]

One trick with eBay is to write to the vendor asking if you can combine shipping if ordering multiple items. Many vendors will then create a special package deal listing just for you to buy.

[@OffGridInvestor]

Surprised he didn't know this. I have bought literally HUNDREDS of bare rooted cacti and like 60 cuttings over the past few months (yeah Ive spent like AU$10,000) and some will literally give you a part refund with no DM, some DM and offer you an extra cacti or seeds not listed for sale instead of a refund, my biggest supplier automatically sends an invoice where eBay will show the shipping combined but for some reason won't do over 40 in one transaction (yeah I was buying 45 and 50 cacti in some transactions).

[@Dusty-uy3ev]

@@OffGridInvestorwhat on earth are you doing with so much Cacti (I do lots of home gardening, indoor & out)

[@seanmcmanus9656]

we don't ask questions about cacti, spores, dried roots from south America, anhydrous x, or environmental impacts. jokes aside we know what he's talking about 😂​@@Dusty-uy3ev

[@MrMaddy1959]

apparently you can find phenol in a Tim Horton parking lot.... so i heard

[@OffGridInvestor]

They used to sell it in hardware stores in Australia for cleaning your bins

[@guyteigh3375]

Oh just a tiny crsyal dropped into a bottle of Parker Quink and it made it smell like it used to at school all those decades ago! Wonderdul.

[@Eivesohn]

I saw "Walmart" and immediately thought "I wonder if big researchers can get their stuff at walmart", then I remembered that a lab I previously worked at used grocery-bought low-fat Svelty powdered milk for the Western-Blot blocking buffer kahdksh

[@That_Chemist]

Yeah another one is bakers yeast - I’ve seen people buy it from Aldrich instead of the grocery store 🫠

[@Eivesohn]

@@That_Chemist bruh 💀

[@skylarculek]

​@@That_Chemist I've seen kilograms of sigma-aldrich salt used for non-reactive purposes where purity meant jack. What is it, again? 55 bucks for 250g...? Ouch...

[@ericscholem6629]

we call those the sigma boys@@That_Chemist

[@taylorb1356]

Cheap low fat powerderd milk is one of the funniest things that bio labs are willing to skimp on to save money. Often times it works fine. makes you wonder what other things could be skimped on to save money. It's certainly not everything, but there are definitely others that you're getting bent over the barrel for.

[@dudehaha3000]

Etsy used to be the prime place to get export banned Russian Ratnik body armour, both carriers and plates. Shit do be wild.

[@sganicocchi5337]

wdym used to, im in asia and they have listings for some ratnik plates lol.

[@mrvwbug4423]

That's pretty funny to be honest. Since apparently Russian troops are often getting fake body armor off AliExpress along with the various mercs.

[@gamemeister27]

Home Depot my beloved. They started selling battery acid for something called a watchdog. Instead of having to distill out the sulphuric acid from the stabilizers in drain cleaner at over 700°F, you can distill out the water from this at a much more reasonable temperature, as it's 50/50 water and acid

[@moth.monster]

The "watchdog" you speak of is a Basement Watchdog, which is a brand of sump pumps with battery backup. Since lead-acid batteries use, well, acid...

[@That_big_guy]

You know you can go to an automotive store and buy sulfuric acid pure right? Well according to the bottles I sell they say they are pure sulfuric acid. It's roughly a half gallon bottle for about $9

[@gamemeister27]

@@That_big_guy I did not! Thanks for the tip

[@PsuedoRussian]

Battery acid pack

[@quint3ssent1a]

> pure tar Ah yes, the INVERSE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE: you can't transmute shit with it, but you always can turn anything into it.

[@NoShotTwoKill]

This comment is great

[@Rachel-sx8zw]

A lot of hydrocarbon solvents used for cleaning purposes are refinery products deemed to far out-of-spec to serve as fuels, light lubricants, and technical grade solvents. Instead of being burned flared off, it goes to a company that blends the various out-of-spec batches of refinery product into marketable products (its kind of like bottom-shelf Canadian whisky). There was recently a huge fire at one of these plants in Texas that blends out-of-spec refinery products into Goo Gone and similar products.

[@That_Chemist]

You should DM me or email me because this sounds extremely interesting and possibly worth making a video about

[@defenestrated23]

I wonder if Coleman white gas comes from this. We use this for fire prop performance (staff, sword, poi, etc). It used to be very "clean" smelling as far as naphtha goes, but since Rona, it has a really nasty toluene/xylene smell and burns with way more soot.

[@BigMyz]

@@That_ChemistI agree. So far the most interesting comment I've read. Made me also think. "Wonder if they're hiring?"

[@SupraBdub]

I think I saw a video on that, was it a "dead leg" pipe section in a polymer plant?

[@Rachel-sx8zw]

@@SupraBdub the compqny is called Sound Resources solutions. No polymers are there, instead, they take out-of-spec oil refinery products and blend them to produce cleaning solvents composed of aromatics and alkanes. These then get sold to industry to be used directly or repackaged and further blended with other solvents to produce consumer-grade solvents. They also recycle mineral acids, acetic acid, and strong bases, and various chemicals needed for oilfield work.

[@hi-yl2tc]

That you converted Sigma-Aldrich into Ligma-Baldrich💀😂

[@milko5143]

💀 thought something looked a bit off

[@SelecaoOfMidas]

😂🤣💀

[@erics3737]

OMG, I feel for today's chemistry hobbiests, with the generic taint of being into explosives and drugs. In the late 60's and 70's, in Miami, Florida there was a chemical company and even a teenager COULD BUY ANYTHING. Just had to have the money. I spent too much there. Then there was the high school chemistry lab where one could "borrow" chemicals. The lowest tier was the pharmacy. I worked at one and was amazed at what chemicals were in the back room and untouched going back 20 years. Sigh. Not that I didn't do explosive things (only pressure "bombs"), but using an old chemistry textbook I explored stuff not normally seen and synthesized (among other things) Bromine, Iodine Chloride, Sodium Tetrathionate (my favorite reaction in how it crystalizes out), Chromyl Chloride, Hydrogen Selenide (dumb) ... of course Nitrogen Iodide. But not having the means to do dry synthesis, couldn't do sulfur chlorides and such. But oh boy am I lucky I survived my teenaged years.

[@drNecronus]

i do agree bro but from your story i think we can understand that people aving the most fun are doing dangerous shit wether it's explosive, poisonous or comertially attractive that's why governement don't want you to have one, like gun's in europe i think

[@OffGridInvestor]

Here in Australia in the 90s, I was completely put off chemistry as a young teen by an azzhole ranting about DRUGS when I tried to order a glass still. Was too upset to go and pay in full after that big crazy rant. If I ever meet that boomer, I WILL punch him badly. So I lost what was a LOT of money to me on a 50% deposit because "we have to order it in and don't want to hold stock we might not sell again soon". It was such a nasty thing to do to a 14/15 year old. The worst I could have done was concentrating alcohol out of something. I know have a huge copper still that's essentially a pipe in a pipe and about 4 meters long.

[@craigs5212]

Same experience, back in late 50's early 60's while I was in 8th -11th grad. I could go into New Your city and buy anything I wanted from a company called Winn Chemical, Solvents, concentrated acids even had 250ml of HF, don't know how I survived.

[@MissionSilo]

I prefer culinary arts and cookies

[@michaelimbesi2314]

Never done any chemistry myself, but waste chemical disposal might be a good video topic. I work in the maritime industry and sometimes, some allegedly unscrupulous companies will allegedly “dispose of” chemical waste by allegedly mixing it into ship fuel and hoping nobody notices and they’ll just get run through the engine and burned out at sea. (Just look up contaminated bunker fuel)

[@silly-youtube6053]

Bunker fuel is sold by weight instead of volume because it’s already super variable in composition, and generally terrible. I can’t imagine how terrible something would have to be, to be considered ‘too shitty to sell’ bunker fuel.

[@nooneproductions27]

Yes I work for a lab that tests fuel oil also known as bunker oil and the shit from South America routinely has human fecal matter and other contaminants. Fuel oil is the worlds greatest pollution source by a large margin

[@jacobrees4848]

This video helped me to achieve my dream of being an unlicensed inorganic chemist and freelance street pharmacist, thank you!

[@amosbackstrom5366]

Must be very expensive for the customs/postal service to open and test every chemically seeming substance they see.

[@That_Chemist]

100%

[@BackYardScience2000]

It's expensive to export from the US for a reason. It sucks, but a necessary evil.

[@somethingelse9228]

@@BackYardScience2000 "but a necessary evil" well, i disagree with that.

[@189643478]

Governments are good at destroying value for society

[@anomonyous]

​@@somethingelse9228Depends on your priorities, I suppose. It is what it is, but for countries with special trading agreements like Canada and Mexico, I think it's a bit silly.

[@xXDoNtMeSsWiThThIsXx]

I work for a chemical supplier and our chemicals regularly get sold second hand on Amazon and people doing home chemistry will call us for technical support. My favorite tech call I had to deal with was a guy who was trying to strip gold from computer parts using our 0.1M Nitric acid but nothing was happening(OBVIOUSLY), I had to put the phone down because I laughed so hard when he told me that

[@yorkshirechemist]

if you're in Europe, another good one is Laboratorium Discounter, based in the Netherlands, who offer both their own brand of chemicals at very reasonable prices, are resellers for TCI and Roth, and ship to PO boxes and residential addresses; however the shipping outside mainland EU, or to Greece or Scandinavia, is very expensive, and it works out cheaper to send it to a parcel forwarding firm N2O3 in Poland are good for organic solvents and more spicy stuff like sodium nitrite, though they are not cheap I went for a job at Manchester Organics back in 2008, just after graduating and in the middle of the global financial crisis, when jobs like that only required a mere MChem, but also when jobs in general drying up like water on a hot stove - they're not in Manchester at all, but in Runcorn, in the estuary of the river Mersey, which would be a long and difficult commute from Manchester even when driving

[@Palmit_]

thanks for that tip fellow Brit!

[@yorkshirechemist]

@@Palmit_ within the UK, APC Pure and HD Chemicals are excellent reliable sources for amateur chemists; the former in particular have a wide variety of stock at bargain prices, and are one of the easiest ways to buy sodium borohydride rather confusingly, they ship through the Alternative Parcel Company (one of the few couriers that routinely handles hazardous materials), which is also abbreviated to APC there's also Techmate, an official distributor for Roth, who sell more exotic chemicals like phosphorus pentoxide, diisopropyl ether or triethylamine, and will ship to residential addresses, but they are not at all cheap and have a typical lead time of 2-3 weeks

[@RoyaltyInTraining.]

Oh dam, Laboratorium Discounter got some spicy stuff. I wonder if they're even allowed to sell half of those things to unlicensed Europeans...

[@UltrafunkAmsterdam]

They are up to date and follow all rules strictly. I ordered 1500+ from them last 3 months, but not like sulfuric acid (banned), Benzene ,mercury or conc h2o2 I had to get elsewhere.

[@markiangooley]

Most bigger supermarkets here in Florida stock pool chemicals including potassium permanganate. In fact it’s much easier to get permanganate than glycerol in Florida: most drugstores have it but containers are small and expensive.

[@IlusysSystems]

This is S-tier video. Thanks for including EU in this. Many people have to jump through a lot of restrictions especially for speciality chemicals. Google is not super great for filtering out companies that make it hard to sell even to a fucking business. Now I had to go over just few sellers to buy 1,6-Hexanediol Dimethacrylate, thanks Laboratorium Discounter :)

[@That_Chemist]

Google is really bad for chemicals - I provided links to all of the not sh** vendors in the video desc too cause often Google fails for some of them!

[@gamemeister27]

Oh, for any Americans out there looking for toluene, I found a local True Value store that sells it by the quart. You might have a location near-ish to you that has it as well

[@sciloj]

When something gets "banned", they do liquidation sales too. I've got a ton of Xylene for almost nothing.

[@BigMyz]

Not one can of tol in my area at TV. Likely selling through remaining stock. I can find it anywhere locally.

[@gamemeister27]

@@BigMyz Ah rip.

[@OffGridInvestor]

As someone who done half an apprenticeship in spray painting, toluene is the majority component in thinners. Standard thinners also known as enamel thinners. Here in Australia dodgy gas stations were watering down the gas with toluene.

[@gamemeister27]

@@OffGridInvestor That gas thing is pretty funny, cause I think F1 used to use straight toluene as fuel until it got legislated out. Could be misremembering though

[@toomanycactus3138]

On eBay it’s always worth messaging the seller to ask if they can combine ship costs if you’re putting in a decent sized order.

[@christineg8151]

soapmaking and bath and body/cosmetics ingredients suppliers can be an EXCELLENT source of chemicals. They also sell little containers, good for packaging/storing reagents or products. The Perfumer's apprentice has a LOT of pure chemicals that are used in perfumery (lots of esters, aldehydes, alcohols, etc) as well as some solvents, especially alcohols. Majestic Mountain Sage, Brambleberry, Lotioncrafters, and several others are all wonderful for customer service. Pricing isn't horrible usually, either. It's also worth checking local cleaning/chemical supply companies. I can get sodium hydroxide in 50 lb bags from a local cleaning supply company for less than $1/lb, cheaper than I've been able to find it online, especially when you consider shipping costs, hazardous shipping restrictions, etc. They also have some of the common acids and solvents.

[@ThirrinDiamond]

Glad i'm not the only one who got screwed over by customs white powder wise (allantoin powder in my case, branded and clearly labeled product) I'm trying to make skincare as sterile as possible sans professional lab (that's a risk factor as it is), so not knowing how they handled the testing, with what, at what date, essentially made the expiration date a mystery and how contaminated it is a mystery, wasting 15 bucks + shipping and import fees, unless i'm willing to risk unknown pathogens in hopes that customs has a clean work environment, personally i'm not willing to bet my personal health on them and certainly not the health of my loved ones if they accidentally use one of the shampoos/conditioners/lotions i make.

[@firstmkb]

I was in a hydroponic grow shop for some reason, and noticed they had 30 or 40% H2O2 for a reasonable price.

[@ericscholem6629]

not actually 30% ask me how i know...sigh

[@OffGridInvestor]

If that's hydrogen peroxide, it's used to sterilise questionable seeds (like mold on them) and especially for sterilising seed starting soil. I know this from having over 600 cacti and over 1000 currently sprouting.

[@smashlee6181]

you are the cacti lord @@OffGridInvestor

[@frtzkng]

Also worth a mention for us Europeans is Limac Science, based in Latvia. They have a good selection of chemical building blocks, albeit not too large (that company is managed by one guy!). Prices for small quantities are a little high but drop quickly if you order more. However some chemicals won't be shipped to non-business addresses, such as mercury, large quantities of bromine, potassium dichromate or boric acid. The selection of what's restricted is quite odd but has to comply with Latvian and EU law.

[@41istair]

Also look up the chemical name in your local legislative repository, as many are illegal for private individuals to buy and posess. Similar laws exist for metal powders below a given particulate size. Everybody in the supply chain is required to report you. These laws can change frequently.

[@OffGridInvestor]

In Australia they're even required to report you buying lab equipment. Of course ebay stuff from china fixes that

[@Asdayasman]

Who cares what the government thinks.

[@vancouveropenbsd985]

If you live reasonably close to the border, get a commercial mailbox on the U.S. side, get your order shipped there, and pick it up and bring it back yourself. Saves a ton in customs fees because you can orally declare it and they'll probably just wave you through.

[@That_Chemist]

Yeah but then I have to spend time doing that, and I don’t want to spend time doing tjat

[@eamonroad6388]

An individual can perform custom clearance for themselves in many cases, without using a broker.

[@simplydarkhalf3974]

It goes through an X-ray machine an they flag it because of where its coming from, the UK, China, Russia, Philippines, an other similar countries have a red flag. A lot of designer drugs come from them. A lot of of the international airports especially in the US will search these packages regardless of they're not suspicious under X-ray or regardless if a dog hits on it. I'm pretty sure Canada has similar systems in place

[@zQoQz]

i love specific niches like this on youtube. it will always entertain me to learn about cool and interesting things that i most likely will never apply to my own life.

[@mattsaucier7673]

Thanks for including my favs (ambeed, synthonix, strem)! Finding good vendors with easy to use websites and cheap compounds literally makes me giddy. This is such a great video!!

[@ShaneClough]

Shameful that the Bunnings Warehouse pool chemical isle isn't included in this list.

[@stevenjean6060]

God bless you Bunning's

[@NickTaylorRickPowers]

The acid?

[@OffGridInvestor]

​@@NickTaylorRickPowersi get the feeling it's the stuff listed as dry acid. Something I read about someone extracting something from a plant.

[@OffGridInvestor]

I was surprised when that aisle suddenly came into existence. Last week I went and investigated what goodies were now available.

[@GabrielHodge-wu7lr]

Let us hope this is not a real place

[@williamackerson_chemist]

Thank you so much. I havent been able to get any DCM products in Florida since like 2019 and im finally making content. Ive had a bottle with like 200mL of DCM in the freezer that i keep like some sort of trophy and never actually use.

[@lukasutar6411]

getting chemicals in germany is a PAIN if you dont want to buy it from a specialized supplier, at least in my experience. if you know what to look for you can get stuff like NaOH, HCl, ethanol or acetone pretty easily, but as soon as you need stuff like heptane, ether, methanol, DCM, ethyl acetate or sulfuric acid it gets difficult. some (eg phosphoric acid) can be bought in very impure form (the phosphoric acid i saw was ~5% with the rest being water and citric acid), but some, like DCM, are impossible to get without a special vendor, eg Roth. the only way to get DCM that doesnt cost a kidney is making it yourself. it really is insane how hard it is to get some things.

[@hantrio4327]

Buying chems online is almost always cheaper and they are better quality. You can get much more chemicals from other countries

[@lukasutar6411]

@@hantrio4327 the problem is that many things are blacklisted here (eg sulfuric acid with a conc. Of over 15%, nitric acid of any concentration, dcm, carbon tet, usw.) So you either cant own them at all or juat cant buy or import them without a licence

[@hantrio4327]

@@lukasutar6411 The possession of H2SO4, HNO3, H2O2, KClO3, KClO4, NaClO3, NaClO4 and NH4NO3 is banned at certain concentrations. All the other chemicals just can't be bought from German chemical suppliers. That doesn't mean you can't buy them in other countries and import them to Germany

[@kaedesakura9274]

The best place is ask really nicely at work. That's how i got a tube of plane glue (technically i am supposed to call it sealant but I gave it to my parents to make sure that pesky bathroom door hook never falls off again)

[@SciDOCMBC]

You forgot one or two dealers. One of the largest is Merck Millipore. They now own Sigma-Aldrich. But it is just as expensive as SA and only supplies companies. A very interesting retailer is the Holland-based company Laboratoriumdiscounter. They have good prices and also deliver to private individuals. In addition, they also have TCI products. As far as I know they ship worldwide. Another company that supplies worldwide is BM-Chemistry from Poland. For example, benzene can be purchased there for private individuals. And last but not least Biolaboratory from Poland, which I believe also delivers worldwide. I think it is particularly important for hobby chemists to know the last ones on the list.

[@andrewwang7699]

I mean I think it’s pretty clear than when he refers to Sigma-Aldrich he means MilliporeSigma, since S-A doesn’t exist outside of the merged company

[@sargon6000]

This list is mostly for North America, with only a few from Europe, though. For EU there are a few good sellers, like Laboratoriumdiscounter, S3, Laborladen, Limac, Warchem.

[@xxxm981]

I always find it very interesting who will sell what to whom under what conditions, its pretty wild

[@boxcutter0]

Uptight EU has a preferred vendor called “Warchem” ? lol

[@Grak70]

So much top tier trolling in this video.

[@redbaronrefining5322]

I’ve been a precious metal refine for about 15 years or so. I’ve searched high and low for years for nitric acid at a decent price. It’s quite expensive generally (can be $300+/gallon) When it comes to nitric acid, I finally found Duda Diesel and buy multiple 20l packs from them at a stupid cheap price 😊

[@pgkr62pljks1]

> "Sigma Aldrich charges high prices" > puts them in A tier > "VWR has high prices, F tier" ????

[@That_Chemist]

Sigma still has like way more chemicals - like sigma has one of the best stores in terms of options, and they are usually ok in terms of shipping and stuff, but VWR has been worse in my experience

[@That_Chemist]

Both suck for prices tho

[@That_Chemist]

Also sigma does lots of other things like their nonograph, solvent miscibility, actually showing up properly on google, etc

[@skyethebi]

Probably one of the most helpful tierlists you’ve done so far. I would also be interested if you did a tier list for places to purchase glassware from.

[@lockdown911]

The algorithm has chosen this video for a reason...

[@frtzkng]

Timestamps: 3:38 - Alexa, please order more [1.1.1]propellane 5:02 - The Bay (the other one, not the one with the funny ships) 5:51 - Mystique Games 7:13 - Bulky Supplies, your place to go if you need 25 kg of proline! 7:55 - I'M A BARBIE GIRL IN A BARBIE WORLD, LIFE IN PLASTIC, IT'S FANTASTIC 8:27 - Xanax 9:03 - The Science Company, literally 9:12 - Carol's Chem Corner 9:29 - Friendly Neighborhood Gopnik Alchemist #1 10:05 - Chem"save"rs (you do save but you save negative values) 10:28 - Coronavirus 10:40 - DIY Temple 10:57 - same as above but different 11:15 - Sus eBay 11:37 - Minecraft Pigman Corp. 12:08 - Voyager Space Probe 12:34 - The Apprentice 13:00 - Perchloric World 13:22 - Pelvis 13:48 - Wall Fart 14:05 - Candy Tire 14:29 - Flubbertek 14:45 - Chinese Amazon 14:55 - Boomer TikTok which has a marketplace for some reason 15:12 - Friendly Neighborhood Gopnik Alchemist #2 15:35 - Stellaris 15:50 - Ligma-Balldrich 17:28 - AK-47 17:55 - Armenia 18:36 - Armenia for Europe 18:40 - Imine 18:58 - Minecraft 19:59 - Stream 20:16 - Activate Windows 20:28 - more perfume stuff 20:38 - the Fluorine Man 20:57 - Sink Quest 21:20 - VWR 21:28 - the Florida Fluorine Man 21:48 - Alfa Male 21:56 - TLC 22:06 - Matrix 22:20 - Moth- i mean Rothman 22:30 - Fisher-Price 22:40 - Springfield Isotopes 22:51 - TRC, not to be confused with TLC 23:07 - Ionic Symphonic Protonic Electronics 23:21 - Manchester United 23:30 - BioBallsax 23:38 - Calendar 23:45 - Blast-A-Dek

[@defenestrated23]

Skylighter pyrotechnics is also very good pricing, accessible (just don't get flash grade aluminum on your first order), and fast shipping. In the US at least.

[@michaelclark4876]

The selection is always limited but for what they have, pyrotechnics suppliers can have great prices. Skylighter is, believe it or not, often considered close to overpriced by the pyrotechnics community. Even better pricing is from fireworks cookbook. Like anyplace else buying stuff that is used for flash powder will justifiably generate some questions. But as I’m making pigments, not a problem.

[@Litepaw]

Idk but there's a dude selling chemicals at a nearby parking lot. They come in these neat little pellets or unlabelled bags. It's such a shame they don't even bother to label the bags with a safety diamond or warnings smh my head 😤

[@drantoswyrick396]

Strem sells the nicest tetrakis I've seen, a bit more expensive than the competition though, and they have loads of very complete catalyst/ligand kits. Synthonix has a great selection, they have a lot of grignards and organozincs. The reformatsky we ordered from them was probably dead on arrival but the other zincs we ordered from them worked fine for Negishis even after a couple months in the fridge. What's annoying is that they comes in simple bottles without "sureseal" caps, they only provide a crappy septum like LCMS vials have for you to put on after you've opened the first time. Kinda for this reason we prefer getting all air/moisture sensitive liquids from Ligma or Thermo. As for Astatech, not sure what they put in their bottles, we had several bottles of SEMCl exploding last year, some HBPin came in degraded (huge chunk of white solid inside), and everything I've ever needed from them was also available for cheaper at Ambeed or Enamine. Kinda blacklisted at the company now... Also a new one we've started ordering building blocks from is PharmaBlock, good experience so far.

[@JScoggs]

Reach out to us for that reformatsky reagent issue! We will happily replace it for you:) Thanks for the heads up on the packaging issues for the grignard packaging

[@custos3249]

It tickles me that you didn't even mention a company that rhymes with Cock Chemical. Worked there as a contractor until I had a freak muscle spasm/cramp strong enough to completely straighten all the vertebrae in my neck. As a contractor, that was it. Then to add insult to injury, they called me a couple weeks later asking if I wanted to interview for a full time position I'd applied for before they "terminated my contract."

[@elnombre91]

Weird that thermo/alfa/vwr are high-markup for you, they're generally my one of my go-to suppliers for cheaper chemicals and lab supplies. As someone who used to work for Manchester Organics, they have a pretty large selection of fluorinated and some more obscure reagents on top of more usual stock available for cheaper than you will often find elsewhere (even if those compounds are not actually cheap). Worth a look if you're a researcher.

[@s0rc3]

I found Ambeed at my last job and they had some cool obscure sulfonates I needed.

[@That_Chemist]

anion sulfonate or ROSO2R'?

[@s0rc3]

@@That_Chemist anion

[@PiraWetton]

I honestly didn't mind ordering from Caledon labs back when I used to work in the chemical stores at my university. They usually delivered pretty quick and were often our go-to for gallon bottles of solvent. Granted we may have gotten a really good deal because they're local ish and we often ordered one to two palettes a week.

[@UKsystems]

One thing that’s worth considering as some products are restricted to business users unless you have licenses in some countries therefore some suppliers will holistically limit some products if they are not restricted in your country or region

[@luisb7107]

VWR just exists in my opinion because you can buy anything (at a horrible price) but I have worked in companys where they are (or were) the exclusive supplier, but maybe the company'shave just better rates. When I worked there I could not order myself so I just gave my "wishlist" to the inventory department and never knew the actual prices they paid in the end...

[@ImpmanPDX]

I learned how to use a laser diffraction machine as a QA at a milk factory calibrating the homogenizers. ThermoFischer was across the street, and they still intermittently send me emails about coming to work for their PDX manufacturing site, but I've heard working there is... challenging.

[@AlaaKacem]

me watching this at midnight knowing i'm not a chemist and i'm never buying chemicals in my life

[@jimkimbrell4878]

This was a brilliant episode! Thank you, can you do one on lab glassware and lab equipment please

[@niklas_science]

Roth is neat, they always save my ass with their 24 hour shipping whenever I forget to add something to my order, what unfortunately happens more often than I‘d like it to lol

[@ottopartz1]

If you're in the states, Sherwin Williams auto paint sells acetone and MEK in 5 gallon tins for cheap. Great if you need a lot of solvent for cleaning up your paintbooth.

[@tomarmadiyer2698]

Glad to see Tom's shed lab. I dig the new fume hood.

[@christopherleubner6633]

Chemical clean out companies are best for cheap and more reactive ones. Ended up ordering a few chems and dropped by to pick them up and left with heavy MW ethers, thorium nitrate, mercuric chloride, sodium, potassium, and bromine for Scott free with my order of some organic solvents and magnesium turnings.❤

[@That_Chemist]

If you have any advice for finding some, let me know!

[@planellas6]

You didnt put Tiktok shop on there, I got 50 tabs of acid for only 5 dollars, what a deal. just got out of the hospital after taking half of one, the voices havent stopped but god damnnit it was a good deal!

[@WaffleStaffel]

You're not supposed to eat tabs of pool acid, silly boy!

[@nobodynoone2500]

You dropped your skujll emoji bruh

[@OffGridInvestor]

I hear kids are using tiktok advice to source vapes apparently. Some place sells without needing a credit card and uses some really weird way of paying, like some type of internet think. Not roblox but something similar

[@tomkzinti2760]

THAT'S ENOUGH MEMES. You're doing good, but that's enough.

[@caralittle8104]

Watching this at my job at one of the companies you mentioned was a good chuckle. Will say there's a damn good reason those big companies are careful who they sell to - one too many incidents of some asshole making drugs or explosives or fake baby formula and the cops finding their bottles on their shelves

[@jannikheidemann3805]

That's ridiculous if you apply it to other crimes. Immagine Intel or Toyota getting problems because someone did some terrorism using thier products.

[@caralittle8104]

@@jannikheidemann3805 it's more akin to if you sold a gun to someone and they did crimes with it. A lot of chemicals are legally regulated and you HAVE to check who you're selling it to and what they're using it for. It's a lot easier to screen your customers in advance than try to nitpick which of your thousands of customers are allowed to buy which of your tens of thousands of products when you're a big company.

[@Aim54Delta]

​@@caralittle8104 Depends on where you are located. In the States, there is very little regulation. Chevron deference being overturned also wipes out most DEA policies because they are not law. It's mostly insurance. Insurance will either charge them more or refuse to cover legal fees if they sell to the general public. Insurance is overestimating the likely burden, but the prospective market is just not seen as big enough to warrant the venture. Most of the supply chain works as it did 50 years ago, before the internet. The paper forms may have gone digital and web forms replacing paper forms and phone calls, but the same types of places are buying the same things. The retail market for chemicals is a tiny fraction of the industrial/commercial market and most of that can be contained within use-case branding. Concrete cleaner is muriatic acid is hydrochloric acid. The retail customer is usually not too concerned about the purity of their concrete cleaner and the scientific or synthesis customer is a different one. The recent trend of people wanting to do various experiments and research at home or in a more democratized form is relatively new. I expect the market assessments will change and either new companies to service that industry or a division of existing chemical suppliers will begin to enter it. I give it 10-15 years to come together - perhaps a bit longer, but within the next 5, I think we will see KZbin channels and collabs participating in competitions usually reserved for college and business teams - solar car races and similar stuff. As that starts to happen, there will be more pull into the scene and market interest will explode. There will also be pressure to change laws.

[@EricTheJester]

home hardware used to be the rebel one, carying sulfuric acid and I believe they still carry huge quantities of kerosene

[@catprog]

The local pool store is a option to look at for some chemicals.

[@WaffleStaffel]

I went to a spa store looking for concentrated sodium hypochlorite and he acted like I must've needed it to make some meth. Said _pool and spa_ store didn't even have chlorine in _any_ form.

[@kaboom4679]

Should have asked for bromine .

[@OffGridInvestor]

​@@WaffleStaffelahem.... vinegar and said item extract joe rogans favourite compound from plants. Acid base extraction

[@WaffleStaffel]

@@OffGridInvestor I'll leave the vinegar and bleach extractions to the, uhh, _experts..._

[@taylorb1356]

CIL, TRC, and Sigma are some of the few places you can get reasonably price(lol) stable isotope labeled internal standards for LC-MS related work. If you need them in the US you don't have much of a choice in the matter. That alone vaults them to the top IMO. Wish there was more competition in the market though.

[@LigmaBaldrich]

2:56 THERE I AM GARY THERE I AM

[@That_Chemist]

legendary handle btw

[@That_Chemist]

I bet you could make content around how bad they are

[@MrVirus9898]

If you do what is suggested @6:41 you will end up hiring a hazardous waste clean up crew, getting charged into oblivion, and possibly getting banned from flying.

[@jimsvideos7201]

Man the timeline on this one must look like a barcode 😮

[@That_Chemist]

oh it ALWAYS does

[@jeremypreston5009]

Man back in the day i knew a guy who would buy research chemicals (you know psychoactive ones like AMT, along with more mundane stuff like DXM) and gel cap them and sell them to us scruffy rave kids. He would buy them from chemical supplies. They'd want credentials, but he'd just doctor up some fake ones and they'd just ship straight to his house. This was in the late 90s. What an era

[@grzybekgrzesio5759]

Oh yeas... perfect timing. I just needen one solvant for a reaction but wasn't sure where to buy from. Now i'll know where to look for, what sites are useful and what i shouldn't bother.

[@grzybekgrzesio5759]

It's not irony, i'm for real

[@danielderesciuc7941]

I’m so happy this was put into my suggested page as I was looking for places to buy stuff from for my chemistry club but my Chem teacher wouldn’t disclose where she buys her supplies😂.

[@palladiumoncarbon]

Roth sucks IMO, like 9/10 times. Crazy prices for basic compounds, not to mention solvents and other stuff like molecular sieves or plasticware. Maybe they sell for less after contacting a sales rep, but idk. Thermo is okay, but you have to email them every time to get a quote which is extremely annoying. Alfa Aesar is now part of Thermo, as well as Acros. BLD = AmBeed. The same inventory and prices, but some of their compounds are shipped either decomposed due to improper storage conditions or underweight. They must have underqualified staff because there were a few cases when we received a reagent in an HDPE bottle when it should have been packaged in glass. The bottle was like a sponge, and the entire package was soaked. The case was solved after a few emails, but still, yikes. Nevertheless, a big plus for them for providing an NMR/GC/HPLC for almost every batch. VWR - pure crap.

[@saschalinz5847]

In my childhood, dont know how old i was, something around ten to fourteen years, there was an old drugstore with an old woman who sells. One day, i wanted nitric acid to buy, and so i went to this drugstore. The old woman says, yes, she can order it for me from Fischar 65%, but i have to buy the complete palette, 6x250ml. Hm, this was a little bit more i wanted, but i thought, better more than no nitric acid, and so i had ordered and buyed. 😂

[@michaelbrodsky]

At the store

[@lseul8812]

With eBay fyi, you can message the seller and most sellers will happily combine shipping. The reason you get charged for shipping on each item is due to a fault in how eBay is structured.

[@kingofthend]

People are allowed to legally own all kinds of dangerous stuff and undertake activities that are increadibly harmful to them and the people around them but for some reason chemicals™ is where legislators drew the line. Can't have shit.

[@scottydawg1234567]

Art supply stores may also be a decent place to look for some chemicals, especially solvents.

[@sadtown]

Performer/cosmetics suppliers have been a blessing to my interests, I got my 60% peroxide, salicylic acid, potassium sorbate and plenty of metal oxides. Fairly cheap, no questions asked. Definitely Kickstarted my projects. Thanks for the tier list Joey ❤

[@irenicrose]

I sent the tierlist to my dad who works for Thermo Fisher and he automatically started pointing out it how the other companies in F tier do the same thing they do but worst

[@kaboom4679]

Home Depot ( US) sells or sold , a product , PEQUA® CESS-FLO that contains hydrogen peroxide , a good bit stouter than the typical 3% sold OTC for mouthwash at any pharmacy . Might be an worth checking out , especially if someone feels like doing some analysis and finding the concentration . I'm guessing at least 12% , possibly 20% or so , but don't have anything resembling a lab set up , and likely won't anytime soon . But it's good to see this list out there , especially for the up and coming aspiring folks . Thank you for that .

[@nobodynoone2500]

Better off at a hydroponics shop getting it pure and at ~18%

[@aqdrobert]

Staff at local swimming pool supply store amused at how many things they sell burn, explode or asphyxiate.

[@andrearaimondi882]

The only real advantage of making certain things yourself is that you climb the chemistry ladder much faster, if you manage to stay alive 😂😂😂😂

[@That_Chemist]

True but it’s way easier to buy 1000 chemicals than it is to make 10 chemicals

[@andrearaimondi882]

@@That_Chemist oh, I absolutely agree with you on that one, and my comment was kinda in jest because of course doing Nitric Acid is possible but also incredibly dangerous and you really shouldn’t do that, but if you understand the risks, the rules and you know that a glaring absence in Breaking Bad is the piranha solution then you might as well make things yourself

[@JimmyJamesJ]

Make up company name like "That Chemist Ltd." using your name and home address. Register a business account with the supplier of your choice. Order whatever you want. I haven't done that to order chemicals but I've done it with other suppliers who wouldn't sell to the public like Grainger and a few others.

[@That_Chemist]

legally form a business in your name, then use it to purchase chemicals

[@fyang1429]

VWR and Fisher really are consumable companies. They are great for pipette tips and tubes etc, but really bad for chemicals. Once I bought something from VWR in a rush, and my boss immediately gasped when he heard it...

[@Camroc37]

1:25 Can't believe you shouted out @Explosions&Fire 's lab!

[@TheTransporter007]

You didn't say which suppliers voluntarily report you to uncle [Sam/Mapleleaf] for the shit you buy.

[@That_Chemist]

that will be happening regardless, so best not to worry about it

[@CarolinaChemical-t3j]

Thanks for promoting our company Carolina Chemical! Please let us know how we can make more of these videos!

[@That_Chemist]

Please email me at contactthatchemist(at)gmail(dot)com or connect with me via discord (my username is thatchemist and I have open DMs on every platform, so I can usually be reached)

[@shuckieddarns]

Soooooooooo... If I wanted to get small quantities under 1 kiligram of a few pure metals, say 560 grams of bismuth, 300 grams of tin, and 140 grams of indium... Where should I look for that? (Full disclosure this is just straight up the composition of 1kg of a specific non-toxic eutectic that you can melt over a double-boiler)

[@WaffleStaffel]

You can get those quantities of bismuth for a half decent price from that Chinese megamart I can't mention who's name rhymes with Bali Hexpress. Kilogram quantities can be negotiated from vendors at their larger parent company, who's name sounds like an Arabian explorer. It used to be cheaply available from a website devoted to it, but it shut down a few years after it opened.

[@firstmkb]

If someone wasn’t as noble and virtuous as you, what would they use such a eutectic for? In theory.

[@christopherleubner6633]

Bismuth from a reloading supply company, tin from plumbers supply as solder rod, and indium from eBay. The solder is tin, tin copper, or tin silver.

[@sciloj]

@@firstmkb Something like Cerrolow 136, there are plenty of (fairly exotic) technical applications, and buying it in a ready form for about $150/kg might be way cheaper since just 100g of (fairly pure) Indium might be $50..70.

[@edwardscott3262]

Csalloys probably has exactly what you are looking for already mixed together and cheap.

[@TacoMeister2]

I can’t believe there are people who actually recognize every chemical in this video

[@XZenon]

[@JoakimfromAnka]

[@BAstudios5]

Dude, thank you for this guide. In the US, it is notoriously difficult to get access to pure iodine, at least purchasing. I had to stare my own company, which I needed anyways, and then I was allowed to stare an account with Thermo Fisher. Then I found out the prices, I was like naw, I'm good. I made my own instead which is easier than paying at least 3 times more, filling out a DEA form and all that nonsense. Don't worry, it's absolutely used for a legit purpose but it was a journey getting to this point and I absolutely needed it for resurrecting a 1830s photo process. Also, bare in mind, I'm not a chemist but my interest in chemistry has really grown and I have come to appreciate it since I started on this journey.

[@NickKazaoka]

Oakwood gets A teir bc they give you a fun element magnet with every order. And theyre cheap af for a lot of reagents

[@That_Chemist]

If the magnets weren’t so cheap quality I would agree

[@s0rc3]

Synquest gave me cheap plastic sunglasses, I think I still have them.

[@Gman_4041]

This is great information for someone trying to go entrepreneurial like me. I’d love to see something similar for equipment!