#still waiting on grad school decisions everyone cross your fingers for me pls

[alt-wannabe]

what’s ur favorite element/favorite chemical reaction if any,,,,? sorry super random ask it’s 1 am and I saw chemistry major in your profile and got inexplicably excited

NEVER APOLOGIZE FOR LEAVING ME AN ASK ESPECIALLY IF ITS ABOUT CHEMISTRY!!!!

oh god i’m such a nerd where do i start

my favorite element changes frequently but at the moment it’s probably chromium. generally i’m a transition metals girl over anything else (i primarily work in inorganic, that’s what im trying to get a phd in) so any metal i’m a pretty big fan of. chromium is just the primary one i’m working with in my lab right now. i’m using inductive heating to make chromium metal organic frameworks and it’s very very cool because i am very very lame. the chromium compound i work with (chromium nitrate nonahydrate) is also really pretty so (shown below). i also just really really miss working in lab. ive been just so ungodly busy with grad school applications and finals and family holiday and band needed me to do a bunch of stuff even on break so i haven’t had much time to do chem outside of classes which makes me a little sad

for reactions i think grignard reactions are really really cool. for one grignard reagents will blow the hell up if they touch water, some even being set off by moisture in the air so that’s just very fun! and even though it’s an organic reaction it still involves more than the basic oxygen carbon nitrogen bitches cause it needs a magnesium to work! and magnesium is dope!! also like chemically it’s a super important mechanism since it forms a new carbon carbon bond. i also obviously like any inorganic reaction bc duh that’s my field but in general inorganic reactions are far more likely than organic to have interesting color changes! i remember in like honors chem sophomore year of highschool we did an experiment where we soaked wood in metal complex solutions and the pieces all burned different colors, and that’s just fuckin cool.

now that i seen ive written a goddamn essay i’m gonna cut it there because i could legit go on for hours 😭 thank you for letting me chemical yap its one of my favorite things to do