Purchasing Chemicals

[vmaniscalco]

Hey everyone I am new and this is my first post. Pbviously I am a newbie to this stuff. However, I have began talking my first chemistry class and I am so intreged. So anyways I was wondering if anyone can refer me to a website that sells chemicals online through Paypal. All i have found so far is http://www.unitednuclear.com

[rthmjohn]

Various lab chems and pyrotechnic ingredients can be found for auction on Ebay, which uses paypal. Really get a good understanding of lab safety and balancing equations before you start doing advanced experiments. Remember, many experiments can put your life at risk!

[olmpiad]

Order the catalogue from Alfa Aesar. It has a ton of chemicals in it, as well as the most up-to-date version of the periodic table, labware, and pure elements.

[woelen]

Probably a company like Alfa Aesar does not sell to the general public. Chemical supply houses usually only sell to licensed companies, universities and government labs. A home chemist definitely has no license.

 

If you want chemicals for home experimentation, then you have to look at raw chemical photography shops (they have a lot of chemicals), ceramics and pottery suppliers, but also in local hardware stores quite some interesting things can be found.

 

Ebay indeed also can be nice source of chemicals. There are also special element supplyers, who sell very pure elements of all kinds. This is a nice source for very pure metals. Forget about the official chemical supply houses. These struggling suppliers almost are useless for the hobby chemist. Besides that, their prices are 10 to 100 times as high as with other suppliers.

[jdurg]

Exactly. Large chemical companies offer supplies in an incredibly high purity and with assays depicting every impurity in there, but that high purity and assay cost gets transferred on to the customer and results in higher prices. While the purity of what you get from a non-chemical supplier may not be as high and you won't have the luxery of a complete assay, it's typically "good enough" for whatever the home chemist would be doing.

[Caver451]

This sounds like what you're looking for.

 

http://www.hometrainingtools.com/

 

Don't just "be careful", be "educated" in what you're doing. Chemistry can be exceptionally dangerous, even when you do know what you're doing. I suggest talking with your chemistry professor privately. He or she may be willing to supply the chemicals and expertise, if you show a genuine interest in learning.

 

-Caver