Finding chemicals for making Nanocomposites

[zer0c123]

Alright I've been given the annoying task of getting price quotes of 2 chemicals, Trigonox 239A made by Akzo Nobel which is a catalyst, and 6% Cobalt Nap-all made by the OM Group which is a promoter. I still have no idea why the lab manager doesn't find it himself since I have to report back to him and he will order them. Also the fact that I'm the new guy in this research group

I tried calling both companies trying to get quotes and numbers of any distributors. I pretty much got kicked around and transfered to different representatives. Eventually I got some numbers to some distributors Composites One, Transwestern Chemical, and North American Composites. I got a quote on 6% Cobalt, but the Trigonox is none in stock and they have no idea when they will get any. Akzo Nobel would only sell us a case with (1-2 Gallon bottles i think, which is more than we need and $500). ALso the representative of the Akzo Nobel chemical department seems to be always out of the office. THe one time i spoke with her must have been pure luck.

So does anyone on this forum use these 2 chemicals in their lab? If so, what company(in the U.S.) are you getting it from.

I really don't want to go through calling them again, because both companies are in the east coast and i'm on the west coast. I got early class in the morning until early in the afternoon, so their office hours are closed by the time i get off class. I had to get up really early this morning to call them for information because of the 3 hr time difference.


Side note: We really need those 2 items because we are currently working on nanocomposites, but our experiments just failed. We tracked the problem to the trigonox at being ineffective in the curing process. This totally screwed up a few months of work and some experiments that some other grad students were working on.

 

[Compositepro]

It seems that you need a little attitude adjustment. Your post comes across as being very self-centered and that does not encourage people to be helpful. As you have found the assignment you were given is not a trival amount of work and that is probably why your boss is not doing it himself. He may also think that you may learn something useful like how to get something done.
In any case, almost any chemical can be obtained from Sigma Aldrich, in small quantities. Many chemical companies use them to distribute product samples. They are not cheap and you have to go though a qualification process to buy from them. This helps to keep chemicals out of the hands of crazies and terrorists. Your employer, though, is probably already qualified.

 

[zer0c123]

Funny thing is the Sigma Aldrich was the first thing i was looking through until the head researcher saw me and said who the hell told you to use that. Any way I finally got the price quotes.

If the post sounds self centered then sorry. It was mainly for humor purposes of griping about the task. I just thought that since the lab uses these chemicals on a regular basis they should have the distributer names on file for me to look up.

I actually found the items by calling the same distributer a 2nd time probably talking to a different sales rep and got different information. Which was oh we have it in stock or hey our other branch has it in stock.