[Yazan17]

Hi,

I'm interested in how much does an individual PHD student and Post doc in organic synthesis spend (financially) on chemicals on a typical day? Obviously this is going to vary from what one's trying to make, but can anyone give me some rough ideas or (better yet) estimates of your own research costs, just in terms of the chemicals you get through?   Are you looking at (per person, and cost of purchase of chemicals only) $80/day or is it more like $250 upwards a day? 
  I'd really appreciate any ideas since I'm considering how much I'll need to apply (for purely research costs) and also whether self funding (or partial self funding) might be feasible. 
  Thanx a lot 4 your help.

[enahs]

This varies greatly. For instance, I am doing some research with the Physics department (I enjoy Physics a lot as well), I am there as the Chemistry and Instrumental guy (and in fact, I recently redesigned the whole research experiment for better results). Anyway, the stuff I am doing there, as far as chemicals, we  spent ~$150 a year ago and are still using the same chemicals.

On the other side, I am also doing research at another institution and it is a Biochemistry project. Pretty much every day I use anywhere from $800 to $1,500 a day on just chemicals (proteins and substrates, etc). That is how much we spend, and we have to get a lot of other stuff through calibration because we can not afford it.


Those are just two ends of the spectrum, it totally depends on what your research is.

[Yazan17]

Hi Enahs!
Thanks so much for your reply, it was interesting to hear your experiences - I find academic research to be an amazing experience! 
  Yes, I suspected there would be hugely varying costs (I remember building myself a basic nitrogen laser for about $160 whilst still at elementary school - after all, the technology for such a device was pretty much available in Benjamin Franklin's day -  though I think more advanced lasers could be a (much) bigger challenge!)
 One area I've considered is organic synthesis of nonlinear optical materials. Another fascinating area are the superconductors (again, making a superconductor (actually I've only made a 'high temperature' one) isn't necessarily too difficult but I wonder what the rough costs of real, meaningful research in this field are?
   I'd love to hear any further thoughts / experiences from anyone?
Best wishes - and thanks again Enahs!

[Mitch]

It will be difficult to get any meaningful or good research accomplished in a home lab. I would suggest you save your money and start doing research once you get into college.

[enahs]

Yes, keep in mind that the $150 worth of chemicals we have been using for over a year; we still require equipment that totaled is worth over 1 million dollars.

Some measurements are destructive and some are not. The one I am working on that is more physics, virtually all the measurements are non destructive, and so we can use the same samples over and over. The biochemistry, one shot sort of thing (hell, sometimes we do not even get one shot).

[Yazan17]

Hi Mitch and Enahs!
  Thank you for your thoughts: I agree completely.  Although I might 'tinker about' a bit in the garage or lab at school, I understand that most meaningful areas of research can only take place in a highly equipped lab.  So maximizing my grades to achieve the best chemistry career I can is certainly the number one goal - and it's important that good people like yourselves remind those of us not yet in the research process to keep that in focus - so thank you.
  But do you think there are any small scale projects that could be meaningful?     For instance, I spoke to a biologist doing a PHD recently who also conducted experiments on yeast   genetics - not too expensive (I think - perhaps X-ray Crystallography is needed...), and possibly meaningful if one's into biology? 
  I guess many of us in school are just frustrated that we have to wait so long to begin meaningful research.  We're way ahead on the textbooks and willing to spend our free time in science, we just wish there was any form of meaningful research that could be done with small budgets (maybe a few thousand dollars) that several students could chip in with.   
  If anyone has any thoughts, I'd love to hear them!  Thanks again Mitch and Enahs; your points are well taken and very helpful - high grades are crucial for the future and there's no point trying to do research now unless it can actually be meaningful!   Best wishes, Yazan.

[billnotgatez]

There are many citizen scientists who contribute knowledge to the community. Forrest M. Mims, III would disagree that a citizen scientist has no place in research. There are countless times that observations have been inappropriately designated as finding by the professional science community when it was the citizen scientist who made the discovery. Never the less, many types of research require funds that are far beyond what a typical individual can acquire. The chemistry field is one of those areas that doing stuff as a citizen is blocked by more than money. The legal system is very controlling. No wonder the areas where the most citizen science is done is astronomy and natural sciences.

As a side note, I see no problem with replicating other work to prove its veracity and at the same time get practice in techniques.

As an additional thought, remember chemistry does require an added extra effort towards safety. Obviously, there are inherit issues when using chemicals. Equipping and finding the appropriate location for the home laboratory may prove challenging. It would be distressing to do an experiment in the kitchen and burn the house down.

[Yazan17]

Hi Billnotgatez!
  Thanks for your thoughts and directions to the 'citizen chemist' area of this forum - I wasn't aware of that and I'll enjoy reading the ongoing experiments in that area.
  Thanks too for supplying the reference of Forest M Mims III - I'll continue reading through his website.
  And I think you're right,  most of us on this forum seem to agree that the quickest way forward to do meaningful research is through the established academic / industry research process.  So of course grades (and lots of extra knowledge from extra reading around the subject) are key.  I guess us over enthusiastic chemists will always be messing about with some small project in the garage; but it does seem to me right now that real meaningful research generally has to wait til one makes it into academia / industry.
  But if anyone would like to share any research they work on (either purely for fun/education or that could potentially have fundamental applications) I'd really love to hear it.  I'll also post on this forum in the future if I ever hit upon any really neat, meaningful experiments those of us not yet in the research community could do.
  Best wishes and thanks again for your help Billnotgatez!