• Question: what chemicals do you use the most

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      Asked by lauren to Cat?, Elaine, Helena, Iain, Gabriel on 11 Mar 2016. This question was also asked by Elise.
      • Photo: Olusegun Gabriel Fawole

        Olusegun Gabriel Fawole answered on 11 Mar 2016:

        I don’t work with chemicals at all.

      • Photo: Helena Quilter

        Helena Quilter answered on 13 Mar 2016:

        Hey lauren!

        I work with chemicals every day in my laboratory – I’m always mixing them together to try make new ones!

        The chemicals I use the most are chemicals called terpenes. They’re chemicals that we can extract from plants and are made up of carbon and hydrogen. The most common terpenes I use are called limonene and beta-pinene.

        Limonene is an oil that is found in orange peel and is what makes them smell really orangey! It’s really common – it’s in lots of things like shower gels and cleaning products. Beta-pinene is found in pine trees and is what makes them smell very piney. If you have a tree in your house at Christmas it’s the beta-pinene that makes everywhere smell really nice!

        I love using terpenes – it makes all my work smell really great!

      • Photo: Iain McLellan

        Iain McLellan answered on 17 Mar 2016:

        Hi Lauren,

        When I was doing my PhD I used chemicals called ‘chlorophenols’ which smell really horrible. Nowadays in the labs I use a whole lot of different chemicals such as methanol, strong acids and solutions of metals

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