I have decided to create Hobby Chemistry to share some of my work as a Chemistry Hobbyist. Here you can find every type of chemistry related topics, from simple demonstrations to advanced organic synthesis.
Who am I?
At the time of this post I am 19 years old and I’m from Portugal. I have been interested in science all my life. 6 years ago I started learning chemistry outside school and so decided to set up a Home Laboratory.
I just finished my first year studying Chemical Engineering and I’m looking forward for the second one.
Why did I create this “site/blog”?
I decided to create this site for three main reasons:
- To encourage other amateur scientists to have a Home Lab and do their own experiments/research;
- To teach other people interested in Chemistry;
- To spread my own work (which I am very proud and fond of 🙂 ) and get some feedback;
What can you find here?
This blog is divided in four main categories:
- Chemistry Experiments: here you can find posts about synthesis and other experiments that do not fit the “Demos” category. Many of them are about making or obtaining more reagents that may be of use for the Home Chemist;
- Demos: here you’ll find experiments with solely entertainment purposes. Many of them are well known and can be used to mount a spectacular show for an audience, for instance;
- Apparatus and Equipment: here you’ll find information on how to set up apparatus for experiments or how to improvise equipment used in a Laboratory;
- Miscellaneous: here you’ll find exactly what the category’s name suggests. Posts that do not fit the three categories mentioned above will go here.
Final Notes
I honestly hope to receive feedback from you. If you have any doubt or want to leave some feedback do not restrain from commenting on the post said doubt or feedback are about.
If you have any doubts or wish to discuss something, you may contact me through: hobbychemistry25@gmail.com
Hobby Chemistry 
I have been trying to get ideas on some so many chemicals and how to combine it
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Hello, this is coming from a 17 year old student from NZ in 2021. I was scrolling around the internet and stumble in this site. Im here to tell you guys everything of about my experience in amateur chemistry probably just for someone to read through my journey because Im losing motivation of what Im doing. So anyway it all started last year with my interest in science specially chemistry and as the days went by my first experiment was when I started to play with yeast and sugar to make alcohol mix it around and let the mixture sat for 2 weeks and made a decent alcohol and unreacted sugar that was still in solution as I go on and enjoy what I accomplish I bought a chemistry set from ebay which was atleast NZ $215 and other equipments to fit my needs( I have a part time job) and begin to build and accumulate knowledge and there I started from ground up making workbenches tables lab stands to fit my need until now. I now have a working fume hood and pc which I can research stuff but I am slowly losing interest and drifting into social media dependencies but Im here trying to fight it so I have high hopes for future for my interest in knowledge and science.
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Hey!
I am a Chem enthusiast too, and I’d love so much to get to where you are. We’re still in 2021, and I assure you, chem will lead you farther than any other thing of second fiddle.
Hold on even when you’re losing interest. Love may fade at times, but persistence pays with even a greater passion.
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During this, ” natural – biology technology ” keep in touch with scientific research bound all the time, pay close attention to all sorts of is to repeat what paper institute does to try hard continuously.
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Hi
After greeting
Is there a
1. masks used in the laboratory for the protection of chlorine gas.
2. Personal chlorine gas detector.
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Hi HgDinis, just stumbled upon your blog as well. I have been watching chemistry on YouTube for a while and reading about it too. Also spent over $1500 on my home lab, between glassware, equipment and reagents. I have read all of Uncle Fester’s books and I highly recommend them to everyone, interested or not in chem. I always like thinking about clandestine chem, but not because I want to make illicit drugs. Its so fascinating to see the creativity and inguinity of desperate and highly motivated people to solve a problem and perform a reaction. I see what “the literature” says and usually for LiAlH4 or NaBH4 or KMnO4, K2Cr2O7, -78C and NH3(l) with Li, or Na, and it’s astonishing how other contraptions and “make shift” things can solve problems with reactions without spending time and money on special glassware and reagents. I appreciate what you’re doing and wish you the best with your continued research as an amateur chemist.
I saw you’re around my same age and in college. Are you majoring in chem or chem engineering?
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Hey Jack,
It’s great having you around. The blog is a little stopped at the moment, but I’m going to continue writing new posts in the summer.
I’m majoring in chem engineering and I’m loving it 😀
HgDinis25
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Hello Edwin,
First of all, I’m glad you’ve decided to pursue the beautiful chemistry science. It will change the way you see the world. If you have forgotten about a lot of what you learned in high school, I recommend that you start from the basic, as you said. My favourite book that teaches basic chemistry, in a way no other book can (in my opinion) and even gets to quite complicated subjects including kinetics and thermodynamics, is “Chemistry” by Raymond Chang. Look it up, it may be of some use to you.
About motivation. What made me start learning chemistry was actually DOING chemistry. I decided that I wanted to replicate an experiment I once saw and from there I built my entire lab. I recommend you follow a similar path. Don’t just simply read and read about chemistry. Apply it. Make experiments. Get satisfaction from them, show them to other people, explain why things happen the way they happen. You might figure out an end goal or a motivation while doing it.
Now about the online post. Could you please put a link here so I can read it?
Well, it is true that many countries are regulating the sale and possession of certain chemicals or even chemistry glassware, mostly because of their use in the production of illegal drugs and explosives. Where I live, though, it isn’t that bad. I can get many chemicals OTC and easily buy all sorts of glassware. And ebay is also a very good source.
To further help you in this matter, I would need to know the country where you live. Remember though, that Chemistry is the science of change. And, mastering it will allow you to obtain many chemicals that you might need without actually having to purchase them. And, with some imagination, equipment and glassware may easily be improvised from scratch.
I would love to continue helping you out. Please do answer and ask any questions you have.
Oh, and to other fellow internauts that may be reading this. This blog is not dead. I am just quite busy as I am in the first semester of my college course (Chemistry Engineering). I will update it with more interesting synthesis and reactions, I just don’t know when I’ll have the time to spare.
HgDinis25
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Hey my name is Edwin. I Just stumbled on this blog. I’ll check it out.
I recently decided that I wanted to teach myself chemistry. I forgot everything that I learned in highschool so I’ll have to start from the beginning with ions, isotopes, etc. I don’t know what my end goal or motivation is with chemistry, but I guess it will give me a better understanding of this world that we live in.
I recently read an online posting that give me some doubt about moving forward with chemistry. The post claims that amateur chemistry is dead and not worth persuing because it is so regulated now due to terrorists and meth dealers using chemistry for the wrong reasons. They say that it’s increasingly harder now to get chemistry equipment and test chemicals. Idk it kind of bums me out. What are your thoughts and experiences on this? Has it been hard to get equipment? Do you have to fill out long question forms or are questioned when you seek to buy chemicals?
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