• r_thndr@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    8 months ago

    I used to be an industrial chemist. We did esterification reactions to turn chicken fat and laxatives into oil field soaps by the truckload. So I guess mid-level organic chemistry?

    • j4k3@lemmy.worldOP
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      8 months ago

      Mixtral 8×7B says you were making “sodium alkyl sulfates” for cleaning the unique long chain carbon chemical properties unique to oil drilling rigs and that chicken fat and laxatives were potential sources for the long chain alcohols needed for producing such soaps.

      She is pretty good at sexting, but how good is she at cleaning an industrial oil rig as a mid-level chemist? /s

      There was also something about a long chain alcohols reacted with a concentrated acid to make carboxylic acids plus heat pressure and water to make soap.

      That level of detail is usually not quite right with this kind of LLM, but I’m curious overall how close it got? Duck Duck Go tried to convince me to shop for oilfield bath soap soap on Etsy instead of telling me what an oil field soap is and nothing came up on Wikipedia.

      • xkforce@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Soaps are generally speaking, salts of fatty acids not long chain alcohols and strong acids. Dont trust LLMs for anything important.

        • j4k3@lemmy.worldOP
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          8 months ago

          They are certainly not primary sources. I did a quick search and the internet is far less trustworthy now. LLMs are like water cooler conversations. According to the internet, you basically did Etsy stuff. I think the LLM got a little closer.

      • r_thndr@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 months ago

        We did some sodium salts for personal care, but the chicken fat in this instance is oleic acid, or sometimes soybean or canola oils, and the laxatives are sorbitol or PEGs. Mix and cook them and out comes a surfactant like SMO. We sent it to the midwest to help with fracking.