Chemistry World Podcast

Author: Chemistry World

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Language: en

Genres: Chemistry, Science

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Bench-stable butyllithium & secrets of Pompeii's limescale | The chemical breakdown podcast
Wednesday, 28 January, 2026

This week, we discuss new butyllithium formulations and ancient limescale chemistry with Emma Pewsey and Phillip Broadwith. New bench-stable tert- and n-butyllithium formulations developed by Merck KGaA, should make organometallic chemistry safer and more accessible. What's different about these formulations and how do they work? And a team based in Germany have managed to reconstruct the history of water sources used in Pompeii from an unlikely source: limescale. We discuss the findings and what chemistry can tell us about our past.