Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Benzaldehyde not carried by Fisher or VWR???

smuv - 19-9-2011 at 22:20

I was buying some benzaldehyde at work, I typed the cas (100-52-7) into both VWR and Fisher's website, no results. VWR and Fisher carry every substituted benzaldehyde under the sun but not Benzaldehyde?? is this in any way related to DEA control of BzH?

Ended up ordering from alfa (with the warning that this order will be reviewed before shipping, common for things like this and iodine), but it is weird because VWR stocks most of alfa's chemicals...

Edit: I just searched the EU and UK vwr websites for 100-52-7 and got benzaldehyde. Non of the N. America websites (U.S. Canada Mex) showed results. With Fisher I tried the UK website and got results but not at U.S. Could this really be due to regulation?!


[Edited on 9-20-2011 by smuv]

AndersHoveland - 19-9-2011 at 22:40

I believe your suspicions are correct.

Dr.Bob - 20-9-2011 at 10:06

Both Fisher and VWR mostly only sell solvents, salts and buffers. That is why they mostly resell other people's organics. We buy Alfa and other vendor's compounds via VWR all of the time, including listed chemicals, so I don't think it is a regulatory issue. It may just not be listed due to some data glitch or limited catalog, but I am fairly confident that you could still order the Alfa or Acros version from VWR or Fisher.

smuv - 20-9-2011 at 23:44

@Dr. Bob: I searched the catalog number of the alfa benzaldehyde I ended up buying at fisher and vwr and got no hits. I really think it is a policy thing. I searched very hard to try to buy the benzaldehyde through fisher b/c I was buying 4 other things through them. No luck.

smuv - 22-9-2011 at 12:09

"Hi XXXX,

The agent at Alfa Aesar said benzaldehyde 99+% is restricted and requires a
DEA license which the university doesn't have, so we can't order it. As a
replacement he suggested benzaldehyde 98%, catalog no. 30749, which has no
restrictions. Do you want me to order this?

XXXXX"

From our accountant...

Nicodem - 23-9-2011 at 06:29

The most incredibly insane thing I heard of lately. Hilarious! Who would have thought that a serious organization like DEA can have such a perverse sense of humor.

Cason - 24-9-2011 at 08:18

you want the 98% anyway as it has a stabilizer in it.. the 99+% will start turning to acid on the shelf.. but yeah in our nanny infested society "oil of bitter almond" started being a restricted item a few years back. The hole in the DEA licensing scheme is there is no license for researchers unless the researcher is working with a scheduled drug. A lot of chemical companies don't know this but a lot do and/or don't care. I have a state license for precursors and I had to correct the spelling for the state pharmacy board on a couple of the listings.