When do standards of purity break down?

A few years ago, Saurabh Chitnis , a synthetic chemist at Dalhousie University, did some math that spurred a radical decision. He calculated what it was costing him to send lab-made compounds away for elemental analysis, a classic technique in which a compound is burned to determine its molecular composition. Then, fueled by that enormous sum, he sat down and wrote a grant to buy a $75,000 machine. Installed last September, it allows him and six other chemists in his department to do the analysis on-site. I’m not an analytical chemist who would typically have this instrument, Chitnis says. It’s very specialized and expensive, not just to purchase but also to maintain. But his calculations showed it was worth it. At one point, 12% of my research funding was going towards burning my chemistry. These days, chemists who need to conduct elemental analysis often have to send their compounds to © 2023 Chemical & Engineering News.