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	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