User:GreytideSkye/Guide to chemistry
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This guide will primarily be useful for chemists but may come in handy to any player and especially traitors. See Chemical recipes for simplified step-by-step instructions on how to make complicated chemicals (sometimes outdated), and for info about using the dispenser's recipe recording function. For grenade making see Grenades. If you don't have a chem dispenser, see the Guide to Ghetto Chemistry.
Handling reactions
For returning players - reactions now work over time. In general reaction rate is tied to temperature and in some cases the presence of an optional catalyst. In general Purity is tied to the purity of your reagents, and how far away from optimal your pH is. It's important to note that the basic reaction is a one size fits all while each reaction is updated over a batch of updates, so it's unlikely that they'll cause too much trouble for you. Keep your pH within 5-9 and bare in mind all reactions are exothermic now. Meth, however, has been tweaked - and it's a tad more dangerous, I recommending reading the entry on it.
For a quick crash course in mechanics, the help button on the chem heater (now renamed the reaction chamber) will get you up to speed by guiding you through a calomel reaction. There's an achievement too if you complete it with a 100% purity product!
Temperature
All reactions that are non-instant have a reaction rate tied to the temperature of a beaker. If a chemical is reacting too slowly, simply heat the beaker up to speed it up. As a reaction occurs, it is either Exothermic (heat producing) or Endothermic (heat consuming). Care should be taken for the Exothermic reactions, as they are liable to overheat. An overheated reaction will reduce the yield of your reaction by default, and other reactions can have specialise effects when they get too hot (not in yet, but soon!). The rate in which a reaction heats up is faster the hotter it is, be careful to not lose control, and run if you do.
Reaction rates
The easiest way to speed a reaction up is to heat the reaction up, but if you're looking for other ways, such as for plumbing, having an optional catalyst (such as Palladium synthate catalyst for medicines) at its required volume will also speed it up. Finally, one other alternative is to use Tempomyocin on a reaction to suddenly give it a boost.
Potential of Hydrogen (pH)
Every chemical has an innate pH, which can be seen by pressing the cog on the dispenser. The pH of the beaker is the sum of the pHes in the mix. The pH of a beaker determines how pure a product is, for the recipes with a given pH, you want to have your pH at the centre of the limits when the reaction starts. As a reaction progresses, it's likely the pH will begin to drift, and must be compensated for either with buffer reagents or acidic/alkaline compounds. The pH range is something chemists often have to learn over several reactions, and the ChemMaster 3000 analyse function can give an insight into what pH you should be aiming for (Not in yet). Highly impure compounds are liable to affect your reaction too thus it is prudent to set your pH before reacting, as an overly impure reaction will drag the purity down of all other reagents with it.
Presently the pH meter on the machines have a higher accuracy than normal to help players accumulate.
Purity
Purity of a reagent is determined by how pure your reactants were, and how optimal the pH was during the reaction. If the product is slightly impure it'll split into the impure chem. 100% pure reagents will not split. If it is highly impure it will invert all of the product into the inverse chem (the percentage thresholds are given on the reagent's entry). If the reaction's purity is below the unstable purity, and the reaction has a failed chem, it will be replaced by that chem at the end of the reaction. Purity also can have an effect on a reagent's performance too which is detailed in the description. To clarify, here's an example case:
- Reagent A 10u 100% purity on consumption - 10u of Reagent A added to the patient.
- Reagent A 10u 75% purity on consumption - 7.5u of Reagent A added to the patient, 2.5u Chemical Isomers added to the patient.
- Reagent B with the retain volume trait 10u 75% purity on consumption - 10u Reagent B added to the patient and 2.5u Chemical Isomers added to the patient.
- Reagent A 10u 20% purity on consumption - 10u of Toxic monomers added to the patient.
- Reagent A 10u <10% purity at the end of a reaction - 10u of Viscous sludge replaces Reagent A in the beaker.
Here's a glossary on some of the terms used in the wiki:
- Unstable purity - Going below this value will make the reaction less stable - Causing extra effects specific to the reaction (such as Helbital's fire spin). If the reaction has an associated failed chem then that will be created as well either at the end, or during tte reaction if it is insolvent.
- Insolvency - Specifically for a reaction's impure/inverse products, if it is insolvent then it will precipitate out either during, or at the end of, a reaction as opposed to the standard effect of splitting on consumption.
- Unreacted purity - This is the purity of all reagents in the game that aren't made by chemists (generally 75%)
- Retains volume on splitting - Splitting into it's impure form does not reduce the original's volume (See reagent B example above, only applies for impure chem splitting, not inverse or failed.) At the moment core medicines are the only ones to do this.
Optional catalysts
For some reactions, an optional catalyst can be added to modify the reaction of a whole group slightly. At present the only optional catalyst is Palladium synthate catalyst, which speeds up the rate of all medicine reactions.
Competitive reactions
These reactions are ones that compete with each other (aka equilibrium reactions) and will go back and forth depending on the conditions of the beaker. At present the only competing reaction is Tempomyocin and Purity tester reagent, but more will be put in soon.
General tips
- Make sure your pH is correct before heating up the reaction, If it's not reacting, this is usually the problem, after the reaction has started however, it will keep going past the limits, producing 0% purity product.
- Keeping your reaction in the heater to cool it can be a way to deal with exothermic reactions.
- You can adjust the pH of a reaction easily by using a dropper with buffer. Using a dropper on a heater will adjust the pH of the beaker within.
- Take a note of how your pH changes across the reaction and adjust beforehand accordingly, or have some buffer handy to inject into the reaction in the middle of it.
- You can abort reactions by crashing the temperature and hoping it's not exothermic enough to overcome that anyways. Alternatively, you could throw the beaker in a panic.
- Upgrading the heater and the dispenser will improve their ability to detect pH. (soon)
- For some reactions, it can be useful to keep reagents away from each other until both of them have optimal conditions.
- Temperature of buffers will change the temperature of whatever you're adding it to! Make sure to not pour hot buffer into a temperature sensitive reaction!
Tools and Machinery
You have all sorts of chems here, and can make many things. You can make medicines, smoke, foam, flash powder, poisons, space lube, acid and much more. The limit on combinations is a limit that exists only in your creativity (and the game engine). Be sure to be careful though, as mixing the wrong chemicals can be bad for your health, and please make sure you know what a chemical does before you use it. Experiment at your own risk.
Chemistry Dispensers
Chem dispensers can be upgraded to unlock more chemicals, allow for more precise macro usage, increased power recharge rate and higher power capacity. If you run out of power, you can disassemble the dispenser with screwdriver+crowbar and rebuild it by first putting the circuit board back, and then all other things but use a full power cell 
instead of the old one. Then screwdriver to finish. Or you can charge the machine with an inducer 
.
Available chemicals:
Click expand to see what chemicals are available:
Normal:
- Hydrogen
- Oxygen
- Silicon
- Phosphorus
- Sulfur
- Carbon
- Nitrogen
- Water
- Lithium
- Sugar
- Sulphuric acid
- Copper
- Mercury
- Sodium
- Iodine
- Bromine
- Ethanol
- Chlorine
- Potassium
- Aluminium
- Radium
- Fluorine
- Iron
- Welding fuel
SilverRemoved Oct, 2020.- Stable plasma
Upgraded (tier 4 matter manipulator):
- Acetone
- Ammonia
- Ash
- Diethylamine
- Oil
- Saltpetre
Emagged:
- Space Drugs
- Morphine
- Toxin
- Carpotoxin
- Miner's Salve
Upgradeable parts:
Click expand to see upgrades:
- Better matter bins: greater power efficiency per unit dispensed.
- Better capacitor: faster recharging speed.
- Better power cell: larger maximum power capacity.
- Better manipulator: unlocks more chemicals.
Longer and more complex chemistry macros can be performed. At tier 1 manips, macros round to the nearest 5u, then 3u at tier 2, 2u at tier 3 and 1u at tier 4
Reaction Chamber
The reaction chamber (previously known as the chem heater) provides all the tools needed to help you react your reactions. You can set your heat, dispense buffers and watch your reactions in real time. An unupgraded reaction chamber will let you know when a reaction is overheated by highlighting it in red. More buffer can be added to the chamber by putting in a beaker into the heater and pressing the draw all button next to the buffer volume display.
Some chemical reactions will require you to heat the reagents in a Reaction Chamber. Unless the recipes says otherwise, these reactions need you to heat the reagents above the required temperature in order to start the reaction. Some reactions can stop if they drop below their required temperature. Don't forget you can use droppers directly on reaction chambers to add/draw to/from as well! This machine will heat/cool a beaker to the desired temperature, slowing down the heating/cooling speed as it approaches the target temperature. If you don't risk making the chemical explode by overheating it (like with meth) you can just set it to a very high temperature to avoid this.
Due to a rounding bug you sometimes need to heat chems 1 degree higher than the recipe says.
Upgrading the laser will increase the heating/cooling speed as well as the capabilities of the machine. See below:
Level 1:
Level 4:
An upgraded reaction chamber gives you more tools and information about the reactions held within it.
- At level 2 the pH meter will flash if any of the reactions are outside of the pH optimal
- At level 3 the reaction chamber will be able to follow your reaction progress in real time
- At level 4 the reaction chamber will be able to determine the reaction quality in real time, displaying the effects of purity, pH and other factors along a dial. The dial will flash if the reaction is below the minimum purity for the reaction.
ChemMaster 3000
Separates, bottles, and makes pills/patches out of chemicals loaded inside. You can load pretty much any container - beakers, spray bottles, water bottles and so on.
Maximum size for dispensed bottles is 30u, patches 40u and pills 50u. Use a chemistry bag 
to quickly move large quantities of bottles, patches or pills.
Can be upgraded with bigger beakers to allow a bigger buffer. By default it contains two ordinary 50u beakers for a total buffer volume of 100u.
Portable Chemical Mixer
This item does NOT require an anomaly core anymore.
A portable device that fits into the belt slot, enabling you to store, mix and dispense chemicals on the go. Can be printed at the medical lathe.
CTRL + Left click will open or close the portable mixer. While open .png){kind=small}
you can access it like any other bag, and fill it with up to 50 beakers and bottles. When closed File:Portable Chemical Mixer (closed).pngyou can do a simple Left click to open it's UI. While the portable mixer is closed File:Portable Chemical Mixer (closed).png it functions similar to a Chemistry Dispenser, allowing you to add and remove a single beaker which you can dispense into File:Portable Chemical Mixer (closed).png.png){kind=small}
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Tips for the Portable Chemical Mixer
- Unlike the chemistry bag
the portable chemical mixer does not combine beakers of the same type into one single icon when accessing its contents. This makes it a superior option for beaker storage. - All containers with the same, main chemical inside them, are represented as a single button in the UI. (e.g. a small beaker with 50u Inacusiate and a big beaker with 100u Inacusiate, are represented as 150u Inacusiate (see image).
- A container with more than one c