Should you buy it from a commercial supplier, or make it yourself?

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Some reagents offered by chemical suppliers can be prepared easily in the lab, sometimes in higher quality, or at much lower cost. Other reagents are difficult or time-consuming to prepare, and time and effort are saved if these are purchased from a supplier instead. There is some difference on opinion on which reagents fall into these categories, as reflected in the table.

Reagent:
Reference for making this reagent (optional):
This reagent should be made in the lab.
This reagent should be bought from a supplier.

Reagent Reference Should this reagent be... Number of responses
(+) or (–)-(Ipc)2BOMe for Brown allylations/crotylations made
bought
22 72% say buy it
LDA
LiN(iPr)2
made
bought
289 94% say make it
AD mix alpha and beta Sharpless, K. B.; Amberg, W.; Bennani, Y. L.; Crispino, G. A.; Hartung, J.; Jeong, K.-S.; Kwong, H.-L.; Morikawa, K.; Wang, Z.-M.; Xu, D.; Zhang, X.-L. J. Org. Chem. 1992, 57, 2768. made
bought
180 85% say buy it
AgNO3 made
bought
44 81% say buy it
Alkyne Hydration Catalyst Grotjahn, D.B and Lev D. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004, 126, 12232 made
bought
34 94% say buy it
BOM-Cl (benzyloxymethyl chloride) Connor, D: S.; Klein, G.W.; Taylor, G. N. Org. Synth. Coll. Vol. VI, 101-103. made
bought
78 84% say buy it
Boronic acids made
bought
34 55% say buy it
Comins Reagent

Comins DL, Dehghani A. Tetrahedron Letters 33 (42): 6299-6302 Oct 13 1992. made
bought
107 90% say buy it
Danishefsky's Diene

Danishefsky, S. et al, J.A.C.S, 1974, 96, 7807; 1978, 100, 6536. made
bought
113 69% say make it
Dess-Martin Periodinane

Dess, DB; Martin, J.C. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1991 113, 7277-7287; Boeckman, Jr. Robert K.; Shao, Pengchen; Mullins, Joseph J. Organic Syntheses, Vol. 77, 141. made
bought
240 77% say make it
Dibutylboron Triflate Evans procedure; JACS 1981 103 3099 made
bought
39 71% say make it
Grignard Reagents made
bought
246 73% say make it
HClO4 SiO2 made
bought
2 100% say make it
IBX made
bought
123 91% say make it
LDA made
bought
125 94% say make it
LHMDS

Rathke, M.W. OSC 1988, 6, 598. made
bought
230 64% say buy it
LiOtBu made
bought
37 64% say buy it
Lindlar catalyst Helv. Chim. Acta, 1952, 35, 446-50 made
bought
86 93% say buy it
Lithium tetramethylpipiradine made
bought
27 96% say make it
MOM-Cl made
bought
127 82% say buy it
N-Benzylhydroxylamine hydrochloride made
bought
16 87% say buy it
Pd(PPh3)4 made
bought
18 61% say buy it
Pd2(dba)3 Ukai, T; Kawazura, H.; Ishii, Y.; Bonnet, J. J.; Ibers, J. A. J. Organomet. Chem. 1974, 65, 253-266. made
bought
218 74% say buy it
Potassium t-butoxide made
bought
100 92% say buy it
Pyridinium Chlorochromate Corey, E.J. and Suggs, W., Tetrahedron Letters, 31, p. 2647-2650, 1975 made
bought
160 85% say buy it
Raney Nickel Tietze, L.-F.; Eicher, T. Reactions and Syntheses in the Organic Chemistry Lab 1989, 71-72, University Science Books made
bought
67 85% say buy it
SmI2 Girard, P.; Namy, J.L.; Kagan, H.B. JACS 1980, 102, 2693. made
bought
146 72% say make it
Sodium methoxide/ethoxide made
bought
196 72% say make it
Stryker's Reagent made
bought
5 60% say make it
TEA made
bought
36 94% say buy it
TMS diazomethane Organic Syntheses Collected Volume, Volume 8, page 612 made
bought
6 83% say buy it
TMS diazomethane Organic Syntheses Collected Volume, Volume 8, page 612 made
bought
7 57% say buy it
TMSOTf made
bought
96 90% say buy it
TPAP

J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Commun. 1987, 1625-1627 made
bought
146 91% say buy it
Tetrakistriphenylphosphine palladium
Pd(PPh3)4
Coulson, D. Inorg. Synth 1972, 13, 121. made
bought
258 58% say buy it
Tris(dibenzylidene)dipalladium(0) made
bought
83 86% say buy it
Wilkinson's Catalyst
Rh(PPh3)3Cl
J.A. Osborn, F.H. Jardine, G. Wilkinson and J.F. Young. J. Chem. Soc., A (1966) p. 1711. made
bought
136 88% say buy it
Wittig Reagents made
bought
169 85% say make it
all analogs of the CBS (oxazaborolidines) reagent made
bought
75 69% say make it
allyl grignard made
bought
121 70% say buy it
anhydrous HCl made
bought
35 71% say make it
anna diks%FDn tkmlyy made
bought
1 100% say make it
beaucage reagent made
bought
9 77% say buy it
hydroquinone made
bought
21 85% say buy it
methyl CBS (oxazaborolidine) Organic Syntheses, Coll. Vol. 9, p.676; Vol. 74, p.50 made
bought
76 64% say buy it
pyridine tetrahydroborano zinc complez made
bought
4 100% say make it
tributyltinhydride made by reduction of Bu3SnCl with NaBH4 made
bought
109 89% say buy it
vinylmagnesium bromide made
bought
28 71% say buy it