Template:The Laboratories of Our Lives: Labs, Labs Everywhere!/Labs by industry: Part 1/Chemical

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3.4 Chemical

Chemistry lab of HTG.jpg

Broadly speaking, laboratories in the chemical industry are focused on testing the properties and constituents of chemicals, bodily fluids, and other organic/inorganic materials. More narrowly, while such testing may be the sole function of a chemical laboratory (perhaps as a contract laboratory), it may also function as part of a manufacturer's greater research and development effort, a clinical facility's quality control program, a government's public safety program, or an agriculture company's environmental research division. In all these cases the work falls under the general concepts of either pure chemistry (research simply for the sake of knowledge) or applied chemistry (activities towards a short term goal, as part of a company or institution).[1] These labs are found in the private, government, and academic sectors and provide many different services, including (but not limited to):

  • analysis and assessment of what and how much is in a substance[1]
  • analysis and assessment of the physical properties of a substance[1]
  • creation and synthesis of new substances[1]
  • development of chemical models, theories, and test methods[1][2]
  • quality testing and assurance[2]

But how do chemical laboratories intersect the average person's life on a daily basis? To answer this question, it's best to first point out that matter = chemicals. Matter has mass and occupies space, and it is made of chemicals. Or as the The University of Waikato in New Zealand puts it, matter is constructed from atoms, and "if atoms are LEGO blocks, chemicals are the structures you can build with them."[3] Therefore, chemistry is about the study of matter, it's properties, and how it changes by external forces.[4] Laboratories performing chemistry activities are, by extension, pivotal to most every aspect of our life. From pharmaceuticals and paint to food and drinking water, a chemistry lab is behind the scenes of many of the items we use and consume in daily life.

3.4.1 Client types

Private - The chemical labs of private companies can be found in many professional spaces and contexts. They may appear as part of manufacturing, R&D, and contract lab contexts, located within a facility or as a stand-alone facility. Aside from any of the above mentioned activities, a private lab may also provide consulting services.

Examples include:

Government - Government-based chemical labs are often part of a regulatory process or provide research that guides regulation development. They may provide mandated laboratory testing of materials for toxic chemicals or material research studies for the improvement of highway construction materials, for example.

Examples include:

Academic - A majority of chemical labs in the academic environment are traditional, in that they act as both teaching spaces and a place for faculty research.

Examples include:

3.4.2 Functions

What are the most common functions? analytical, QA/QC, research/design, and teaching

What materials, technologies, and/or aspects are being analyzed, researched, and quality controlled? biological materials, ceramics, dyes and pigments, fragrances, glass, inorganics, lubricants, manufactured materials, metals, petrochemicals, polymers, raw chemicals

What sciences are being applied in these labs? analytical chemistry, biochemistry, inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry, theoretical chemistry

What are some examples of test types and equipment?

Common test types include:

Absorption, Acid and base number, Acute contact, Acute oral, Acute toxicity, Adhesion, Amino acid analysis, Anion, Antimicrobial, Ash, Biomolecular, Biosafety, Boiling - freezing - melting point, Carcinogenicity, Characterization, Chemical and materials compatibility, Chronic toxicity, Colorimetric, Combustion, Compliance/Conformance, Conductivity, Composition, Congealing point, Contamination, Corrosion, Decomposition, Density, Developmental and reproductive toxicology, Efficacy, Endocrine disruptor screening program, Environmental fate, Environmental metabolism, Flammability, Flash point, Fluid dynamics, Formulation, Geochemistry, Hazard analysis, Impact, Iodine value, Metallurgical analysis, Minimum bactericidal concentration, Minimum inhibitory concentration, Moisture, Neurotoxicity, Oxidation reduction potential, Oxidation stability, pH, Polarimetry, Process safety, Proficiency, Quality control, Sensitization, Shelf life, Solubility, Stability, Subchronic toxicity, Thermal, Toxicokinetic, Vapor pressure, Virucidal efficacy, Viscosity

Industry-related lab equipment may include:

balance, Bunsen burner, burette, colorimeter, centrifuge, chromatographic, crucible, desiccator, dropper, electrophoresis equipment, Erlenmeyer flask, Florence flask, fume hood, funnel, graduated cylinder, hot plate, moisture analyzer, mortar and pestle, multi-well plate, oven, pH meter, pipestem triangle, reagent dispenser, ring stand, rotary evaporator, spectrometer, spectrophotometer, stirring rod, thermometer, vibratory disc mill, viscometer

What else, if anything, is unique about the labs in the chemical industry?

It's important to note that by itself, chemistry as a branch of science—and as a science that deals with the study of matter itself—is a central science, one that bridges multiple other sciences.[5] As such, we see significant crossover into the many of the other industries listed in this guide; clinical chemistry ties to the world of clinical analysis (clinical and veterinarian), medicinal chemistry to the pharmaceutical industry, and chemurgy to the agriculture industry.

3.4.3 Informatics in the chemical industry

The rise in high-throughput screening and combinatorial chemistry, as well as increases in computing power and data storage sizes, have prompted greater interest in the field of chemical informatics (also known as chemoinformatics) in the twenty-first century.[6] In turn, informatics has been applied in numerous ways to improve the lab activities of the chemist, including the:

  • storage, retrieval, and mining of both structured and unstructured information relating to chemical structures, molecular models, and other chemical data[7];
  • visualization of chemical structures two or three dimensions for studying physical interactions, modeling, and docking studies[7];
  • generation and computational screening of virtual libraries of molecules and compounds to explore chemical space and hypothesize novel compounds with desired properties[8][9]; and
  • calculation of quantitative structure-activity relationship and quantitative structure property relationship values, used to predict the activity of compounds from their structures.[6]

3.4.4 LIMSwiki resources and further reading

LIMSwiki resources

Further reading

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "What Chemists Do and Where They Work". Dummies.com. Wiley. 26 March 2016. https://www.dummies.com/article/business-careers-money/careers/science-careers/what-chemists-do-and-where-they-work-194427/. Retrieved 28 June 2022. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 "Chemistry Laboratory". Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology. Federal Highway Administration. 18 May 2022. https://highways.dot.gov/research/laboratories/chemistry-laboratory/chemistry-laboratory-overview. Retrieved 28 June 2022. 
  3. "Chemicals everywhere". Science Learning Hub. University of Waikato. 2 December 2016. https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/363-chemicals-everywhere. Retrieved 28 June 2022. 
  4. "Chemistry if Everywhere". American Chemical Society. https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/everywhere.html. Retrieved 28 June 2022. 
  5. Brown, T.L.; LeMay Jr., H.E.; Bursten, B.E. et al. (2013). Chemistry: The Central Science. Pearson Australia. pp. 1359. ISBN 9781442559462. https://books.google.com/books?id=zSziBAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover. 
  6. 6.0 6.1 Leach, A.R.; Gillet, V.J. (2007). An Introduction to Chemoinformatics. Springer. pp. 256. ISBN 9781402062902. https://books.google.com/books?id=4z7Q87HgBdwC&printsec=frontcover. Retrieved 18 August 2017. 
  7. 7.0 7.1 Gasteiger, J.; Engel, T., ed. (2006). "Chapter 2: Representation of Chemical Compounds". Chemoinformatics: A Textbook. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 15–157. ISBN 9783527606504. https://books.google.com/books?id=LCD-1vHBHIAC&printsec=frontcover. 
  8. Kutchukian, P.S.; Lou, D.; Shakhnovich, E.I. (2009). "FOG: Fragment Optimized Growth Algorithm for the de Novo Generation of Molecules Occupying Druglike Chemical Space". Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling 49 (7): 1630–1642. doi:10.1021/ci9000458. PMID 19527020. 
  9. Kutchukian, P.S.; Virtanen, S.I.; Lounkine, E. et al. (2013). "Chapter 13: Construction of Drug-Like Compounds by Markov Chains". In Schneider, G.. De novo Molecular Design. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9783527677009. https://books.google.com/books?id=Jf1QAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA311.