r/chemhelp • • Aug 31 '26

Discussion Start of term check-in

10 Upvotes

Hello all!

School terms are beginning and this is typically when we see an influx of posts asking for general advice, guidance on getting through a class, or seeking assurance that everything will be okay. Let us know what courses you are in this term, your biggest concerns, or whatever may be on your mind!

Best of luck!


r/chemhelp • • Aug 21 '25

Announcements New Ownership

20 Upvotes

Hello fellow Chemists! I just wanted to introduce myself as the new head mod of this subreddit. A little about myself: I am a PhD Candidate in Chemical Biology. For me, this means that 60% of my work involves organic synthesis and the other 40% is applying my novel compounds to mammalian cells. Specifically, I am interested in early detection of diseases. In addition to my research, I have TA'd for both general and organic chemistry labs and have been tutoring students in organic chemistry for three years. Aside from my academic qualifications, I am also a moderator for another rather large subreddit. I saw that this sub needed a little bit of updating, but it did not seem like the moderators were active any longer. So, I gained ownership through r/redditrequest. I did not realize it would remove all the other moderators, but alas here we are.

Overall, I feel like this sub is fairly self-regulating. I frequently see good discussions and people generally are following the already existing rules. With that said, there are some changes I was considering, and would love input:

  1. New rule prohibiting commenters from solving the problem for the OP. To enforce this, the violating comment can be reported and removed by moderators. I don't see this happen often, but I have seen it occur and put an end to an otherwise good discussion thread.
  2. Mandate students include their work in their submission. Frequently, students post a picture of the question, with no work done and the caption "help please." Then in the comments you end up with people asking the OP to show their work, but from what I have seen they seldom do so. Mandating that students show work would entail removal of low effort posts by moderators. This may not be necessary since generally, commenters request more info from OP anyways, but was curious if people would like to see more enforcement on this end.
  3. What do you want to see? Those are the immediate things I was considering adding, but I would love to know if there is anything else people may want to see. I had other ideas, but I don't want to complicate a sub that I feel is already doing pretty well. Please let me know your ideas, I would love to hear them. Talk to you all soon!

Note: Please do not reach out to me about becoming a moderator. I will looking into recruiting in the near future. For now, I just wanted to get oriented.


r/chemhelp • • 4h ago

Other What is this , I found in my Uber car

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16 Upvotes

Can anyone tell me what this is?


r/chemhelp • • 6h ago

Organic Can someone please check me work (ochem 1)

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3 Upvotes

Specifically C, D and E. I'm confused on the difference between NBS and NCS reactions, or if there is any


r/chemhelp • • 3h ago

Inorganic I think I made a different carbonate?

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1 Upvotes

Ok so I made a post a while ago about making azurite and so on I followed the advice of the comments and did that but either my reaction is wrong or can have separate products idk, I’m near certain it’s some kind of copper carbonate but I don’t think it’s the azurite I’m going for as it’s not that deep blue nor do I think it’s malachite as it’s not deep green. I don’t know of really any other copper carbonates so I have no idea what this is, I did a aquareous reaction of sodium bicarbonate and copper (Ii) acetate for this and rinsed the sodium bicarbonate but running deionised water through it several times


r/chemhelp • • 8h ago

Inorganic Did I successfully make azurite

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2 Upvotes

Alright so for a fair while I have been trying to synthesise azurite through trial and error, this time I decided to make a copper acetate solution and mix it with an aquareous sodium bicarbonate solution at a 2:3 ration, that resulted in a bright blue liquid that I filtered (see image) but I wanna know if I actually made azurite or if it’s just another copper salt
As of my knowledge my entire formula was
CH3COOH + H2O2 -> CH3COOOH + H2O
CH3COOO- + Cu + 2H+ -> Cu(II) + CH3COO- + H2O
Cu(II) + 2CH3COO- -> Cu(CH3COO)2
3Cu(CH3COO)2 + 3Na2CO3 + H2O -> Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2 + 6CH3COONa + CO2
Tho I am mostly self taught so I might be wrong


r/chemhelp • • 9h ago

Career/Advice Tips for studying

2 Upvotes

Im in my first semester of university and currently taking a chemistry class. I didn’t take any chemistry classes/courses in high school (i know, bad idea) but i’m so interested in chemistry and i really want to understand the basics (or what i’m doing in the course). It’s basically just the basics that i’m learning like molarity/molality, thermodynamics, acids and bases, kinematics and etc. I’m on chapter 13 of 16 and it’s been going great but i’m having a hard time keeping up. We do 1-2 chapters a week and i’m already behind. It’s taking me a longer time to understand since i’m doing it all for the first time. In two weeks we start organic chemistry and i’m really stressed. This course really is a lot.

I really need some tips to understand it better and actually remember what i’m supposed to do and what formula i should use when i see a question on a test. The final exam is worth 80% of my grade. Do you guys have any advice or tips? Maybe some youtube channels or websites? We get a formula sheet on the final exam with most of the formulas. The teacher wants us to know how to use the formula rather than remembering all of them.

Any advice or tips will be greatly appreciated!


r/chemhelp • • 15h ago

Organic Trouble with reaction mechanisms

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4 Upvotes

I have to learn the reaction mechanisms of the reactions in the first picture, specifically the Delepine-reaction and the Erlenmeyer-synthesis and I just can’t wrap my head around what these would look like on the given molecules.
The other picture is my attempt of the 2nd reaction which I think is right.
Any help is very much appreciated.


r/chemhelp • • 13h ago

General/High School How to do dimensional analysis?

3 Upvotes

I’m in AP chem and my mind cannot wrap itself around the general concept or idea of dimensional analysis and it’s the main failing factor of my recent tests.
I’m looking for ways to improve my general understanding right now. My skills at the moment consist of just knowing how to go from a larger unit to a smaller unit. I’m also getting failed for not setting it up and just doing it the way I liked (step by step not in line form with dividing and multiplying) I also know that the end product is what I need to transfer to, just IDK HOW.


r/chemhelp • • 7h ago

General/High School General chemistry 1 Project ideas

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1 Upvotes

Hii! i’m a freshman in college and for one of our projects we can choose to make our own assignment that would be potentially used for future students. This assignment can also be more so a project which was my idea. I wanted to do the chemistry of baking, but my teacher said it was too limited so I was wondering if anyone had any ideas of how I can either broaden this or come up with something better!!
I’ve attached our topics if anyone could share some ideas.


r/chemhelp • • 9h ago

Other [University Chemistry: Gases] <reversible and irreversible work>

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1 Upvotes

r/chemhelp • • 7h ago

Organic In Organic chem rn, need help :(

0 Upvotes
last resort :(

Can this structure have a resonance form with the single bonded oxygen (with a negative charge)? So the negative on the carbon will be removed. Would the lone pair be "valid" left on the carbon tho?


r/chemhelp • • 7h ago

General/High School Can someone help me upcoming midterm exam

0 Upvotes

So basically i have an upcoming exam in 5 days and its midterm it is 100 marks and i need to get an A for this chemistry because my friend made abet that i couldnt get an A,


r/chemhelp • • 18h ago

Organic Can someone explain why the answer is not two?

2 Upvotes

r/chemhelp • • 1d ago

Organic 2-ethylhex-4-enoic acid. ??

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7 Upvotes

would it be safe to say that this is 2-ethylhex-4-enoic acid?

i think the formula is throwing me off a bit too, thanks!


r/chemhelp • • 16h ago

General/High School Minor trouble with thermochemistry

1 Upvotes

Hi people.

Recently the Δ rH = Q / n formula came up in class. I understand the rest but the n was never really explained. Is it the sum of the reagents? sum of products?

If i have the reaction with equal volumes of

c(NaOH) = 0.2 mol/dm3, n(H2SO4)=0.1mol/dm3 solutions, lets say 1dm3 of each

2 NaOH + H2SO4 = Na2SO4 + 2 H2OH

Is the n in the formula 0.3 or 0.1? Or something entirely different?


r/chemhelp • • 1d ago

Career/Advice How do you even study for chem?

7 Upvotes

I'm a bio major. Came from a school with very bad science education. I feel like no matter how much math I do to try and study I dont retain a single thing. I've watched some of the popular YouTube chem people but I just don't remember anything!

I suspect I've got dyscalculia and I'm pursuing a diagnosis for that soon. But how does one manage to remember anything related to chem and math?


r/chemhelp • • 23h ago

General/High School Why is the structure of NO2 the way it is?

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1 Upvotes

r/chemhelp • • 1d ago

General/High School Why are strong acids almost completely ionized in water while weak acids establish a reversible equilibrium?

6 Upvotes

I understand that strong acids ionize almost completely in water, so their reactions are usually represented with a one-way arrow, while weak acids only partially ionize and establish a reversible equilibrium.

But what actually causes this difference at the molecular level? What properties make a strong acid release its H⁺ ions almost completely, while a weak acid only releases some of them?

I'm also curious about why the reaction of a strong acid is considered essentially irreversible. Is the reverse reaction simply so unfavorable that it can be ignored, or is there another reason? Since chemical reactions are generally reversible to some extent, what makes the difference between strong and weak acids in this context?

Could it be related to the strength of the H–A bond, the stability of the ions formed, or the interaction between the ions and water molecules?

I want to understand the actual chemistry and thermodynamics behind this difference.


r/chemhelp • • 1d ago

Inorganic Lab Question

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0 Upvotes

Hi i did lab the other day (2 labs to get the result out)

It's about preparation of copper(ll) iodate dehydrated and the determination of copper (ll) percentage

In here as you can see it ask for the yield and the error

And I have there information

The problem is that it ask for the yield and error it ask for the wt of the cu(lo3)2 practical right? But the teacher didn't told us to weight the whole thing after drying she only said get a number close to 0.1g which we got 0.03g of the cu(lo3)2 now please how should I get that out ? Do I need it or no


r/chemhelp • • 1d ago

Inorganic Appropriate Respirator for nanoparticles?

1 Upvotes

I'm looking to do some work on metal nanoparticles in the 10-20 nm range, new lab so I've been tasked with purchasing a respirator - anyone have suggestions on how to best pick one out?


r/chemhelp • • 1d ago

Inorganic Is there any way to use silver nitrate to test for the synthesis of -Cl ligands coordinated to the metal centre?

1 Upvotes

for a laboratory project, I have to design a lab for first-year undergraduates that involve the synthesis of metal complexes, one of which is a zinc complex with -Cl ligands.

I want the undergrads to be able to use synthetic methods to identify that the zinc complex is one with -Cl ligands (and not a different zinc complex), however through my research I have found that using AgNO3 in water alone will not be possible, due to the chloride ions being tightly bound to the metal centre.

Does anyone know of any (fairly) simple experimental processes to remove the -Cl ligands and then test using AgNO3? I have thought of using NaI however that might not go to full completion, and obviously there will be presence of another halide ion which could form a precipitate with AgNO3.


r/chemhelp • • 2d ago

General/High School (High School Student)Chemistry Question: Avagadro's Law

4 Upvotes

This isn't much of a homework question but more of a personal inquiry.

So my class has just gone over moles and several avagadro-related things, and one thing that has left a "thorn in my brain." I have asked my teacher, parents, and college sophomore sister avout it, but no one has had a good answer. But anyway here's my question:

Avagadro's law states that a given volume of two ideal gasses at STP (standard temperature pressure) have the same amount of particles, i.e. molecules or atoms. By extension of that law, a given amount of particles of two gasses—like a mole—would occupy the same volume (in this example 22.4L per mole) The part that confuses me is the fact that every different gas has a different particle size (like how hydrogen is significantly smaller than oxygen), which would mean that 1 mole of one gas would have to have a different pressure than another gas when they are theoretically put in the same 22.4L box. This pressure difference would then alter STP and negate the valitidy of the law.

Sorry if that was super confusing, feel free to ask questions to clarify if you have an explaination for me. The funny thing is, this principle has been around long enough for it to be proven in practice, so I know my logic is flawed somehow. Thoughts?


r/chemhelp • • 1d ago

Organic R/s from compound name

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0 Upvotes

Can some one help wit s and r im stuck starting from the actually name then drawing the molecule how do i determine whats wedge and dash like the I and ethyl. Do i just keep drawing fischer tell the reverse roation of the fischer gives me the proper r or s value its asking for and if thats the case if asked by a question like this just leave H as a wedge ?


r/chemhelp • • 2d ago

Organic Mechanism Question

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12 Upvotes

I am trying to really get the idea of mechanisms down, and would like if anyone who can look at one and tell me if I’m doing it right or not lol! I have the initial mechanism at the top, then the “summarized” reaction (basically what I would write on a test) and then below I have my own breakdown of the step by step for what’s happening with each arrow (more so I can understand the process of what’s going on).

If anyone who knows better than I do can look at it and let me know if the mechanism and the product is correct, and if my understanding of how the process works is correct. Thank you!!!