MAI-Alchemy — Standards Portal

Your profile

Kept on this device. When you're signed in, your name, company and site come from your account.

Your name *

Company *

Location / site

Email or phone

Multiple sites? Set the location — it's stamped on every certificate and COA record, so records from different sites stay distinguishable.

Methods you'd like developed on the LUMA

Entirely optional. It tells us which methods to build first — and if we build one you picked, you'll hear about it before anyone else.

Another method not listed?

What else would be useful?

Which tools would actually save you time? We build what gets asked for.

Something else

Sent with your next submission so we know what to build. Nothing else is transmitted.

What we keep, plainly. When you submit a reference standard we store what's on the label — compound, CAS, manufacturer, lot, purity — plus your name and lab so we can follow up. That's it, and it's only used to build the reference library.

Your inventory and your gravimetric certificates never leave this device. They're yours. Export them to your own directory whenever you like — we don't receive them and don't want them.

Submit a reference standard

We only need what's printed on the bottle. Manufacturer + lot lets us pull the certificate ourselves — no paperwork for you. Expired material is still wanted for spectral identification, so please don't set it aside on that basis.

Compound *

CAS number *

Manufacturer *

Lot / batch *

Purity %

Expiry (expired is fine)

Neat or in solution? Storage

Photo of the label (optional) Notes

Adding several? Build the list, then submit them together and print one manifest to go in the box.

Add a certificate — scan it with your phone

Your phone already reads text from a photo. Point it at the certificate, grab the text, and drop it here — we fill in the rest. Nothing is uploaded; the reading happens on your device.

Scanned text?

iPhone: tap this box, then tap the ⧉ scan-text icon just above the keyboard, and point the camera at the certificate — the text drops straight in.
Android: tap this box, then tap the scan / camera icon on your Gboard keyboard; or open the photo in Google Lens, copy the text, and paste it here.
No scan-text option? Just take a photo in your Camera/Photos app, tap-and-hold the text to select and copy it, then paste.

Have a text-based PDF instead? Drop it here.

📄

Drop a PDF or photo

Text-layer PDFs parse automatically. A photo has no text — use the scan box above for those.

Add to inventory

Every chemical you hold on the shelf: what it is, where it lives, its lot and purity, and when it expires. Add one by scanning its certificate above, or by hand. (Standards you prepare are filed automatically under the Prepared blends type — this is the raw material you keep in stock.) Private to your device — we never receive any of it.

Type?

Solvent — a diluent you blend into. Neat standard / reagent — a pure material. Solution / stock — a purchased solution. Calibration standard (CRM) — a certified reference solution. Blends you make in Tools file themselves as Prepared blends. The type drives the filters and the badge on each item.

Compound

Vendor / manufacturer

Part / catalog #?

Recording the part number means reordering is a lookup, not a hunt — and it makes the CSV export directly useful to purchasing.

Purity %?

Lot

Grade?

The assay purity from the certificate (e.g. 99.5%). The blend designer uses it to purity-correct — it weighs a little extra so the pure analyte still hits your target.

The quality spec — ACS reagent, HPLC, GC, Certified Reference Material (CRM), Technical… A traceable / CRM grade is what stands behind a certificate.

Container size

Amount left

Containers

Received

Opened?

Expiry

Date opened matters as much as expiry for peroxide-forming ethers and for anything that oxidises — several standards bodies date from opening, not from manufacture.

Received by

Reorder at?

Set a minimum — when Amount left drops to this, the bottle flags for reorder, so you never find an empty container mid-method.

Where is it??

Room → cabinet → shelf. Previous entries auto-suggest, so after the first few bottles you're picking from a list rather than typing. The site comes from your profile.

Storage

Photo of the label (optional)

The CSV uses plain column headings (compound, cas, vendor, part_number, lot, purity_pct, expiry_date, storage, location) so it maps straight into most LIMS imports.

Lab tools

Pick a tool. Each opens in its own workspace and works from your numbers — every step is shown so you can check the arithmetic by hand. Anything you prepare is filed in your Inventory with a certificate.

Prepare a standard

Purity-corrected, mass-based. Every step is shown with your actual numbers so you can check the arithmetic yourself.

Standard name

Batch size?

Basis

Target units

Batch size — how much standard you'll make in total (in the Basis units below). Basis — weigh everything by mass (g, for w/w; more accurate and temperature-independent) or make up to a volume (mL, for w/v and v/v). Target units — how each component's concentration is expressed: % w/w, mg/kg (ppm, w/w), % w/v, mg/L, or % v/v.

Solvent / diluent?

The solvent has to dissolve everything, but must also elute clear of your analytes. Those pull in opposite directions — we check both below and say which one is the problem.

Components

Start typing — suggestions come from your inventory and the reference library; picking a match fills the lot purity from what you hold, and shows its reference MW / density below.

Balance readability (g)?

The smallest increment your balance displays — 0.0001 g on a typical four-place analytical balance. It sets the uncertainty on the result below.

Balance ?

Usually all on the calibration sticker. Saved as your default — enter it once.

Recording the instrument and its calibration status is what turns a calculation into a traceable record. Without it the number is correct but unsupported; with it the certificate stands on its own in an audit.

Balance ID / model

Serial number

Calibrated on

Calibration due

Calibration cert #

Calibrated by

Tolerance class

What you've submitted

Your record of what you've contributed to the library. Kept on this device.

Prepared standards

Every standard you've made, with its unique ID, who prepared it, and when it expires.

Your records folder

Pick a folder on your own machine — a network drive, a synced folder, wherever your records live. Certificates and exports are written straight into it. We never see any of it.

Sharing with colleagues? Pick a folder that is already shared — a network drive, or a OneDrive/SharePoint/Dropbox folder your team syncs. A folder that only exists on this computer cannot be shared, however you set it up here. Each colleague opens this page and picks that same folder; the browser can't do it for them.

What should we build next?

These tools are in beta and we build what gets asked for. If something would save you time, say so — you're closer to the bench than we are.

Tools you'd use

Something else entirely

Anything not working?

Rough edges, wrong numbers, confusing wording — all useful. Tell us what happened.

How should we reach you? (optional)

Sent to us directly. Nothing else from this device goes with it.

Want to go further?

If there's a method you'd like developed on the LUMA — or an application you've never been able to get working — that's a conversation worth having. info@mai-alchemy.com

How to use this portal

Everything here runs in your browser — your inventory, COAs and certificates never reach our servers. Tap any ? next to a field for a plain-English explanation. Here's the tour.

1 · Connect your records folder — do this first

My files → Choose a folder. On desktop Chrome or Edge, the portal writes your certificates, COA records and photos straight into that folder. Pick a synced folder (OneDrive / SharePoint / Dropbox) if your team shares — everyone opens this page and picks the same folder.

On a phone, or in Safari/Firefox, the browser can't write to a folder — files download instead, and you file them into your synced folder yourself.

2 · Submit a reference standard

Submit → enter the label details, optionally snap a photo, and submit. You get a submission ID. This is the only thing that reaches us — the label details and your contact, so we can arrange collection.

3 · Add a COA to your library — and keep the photo + data

COA library → scan the certificate with your phone's ⧉ Scan Text (or paste text) — it parses on your device. Attach a Photo of the label. When you add it, both the parsed record and the photo are kept: written into your records folder as a matching .json + .jpg pair, and the photo is also embedded inside the JSON so a single file travels with everything. Use ⤓ Save all to my folder to write your whole library at once. The library tracks expiry and warns you before anything lapses.

4 · Standard preparation tools

Tools is a launcher — pick a tool and it opens in its own workspace. Make a gravimetric blend builds a multi-component standard by mass and, once you enter what the balance actually read, back-calculates the true concentrations with uncertainty. Make a volumetric blend does the same up to a flask volume. Serial dilution plans each level and warns when a step needs less than a balance can weigh. Each run produces a Certificate of Preparation and files the standard in your Inventory.

5 · Lookup & the rest

Lookup — physical properties, storage guidance and prep notes for any compound. Inventory holds everything you keep and everything you prepare, filtered by type; My submissions — your saved records. Suggestions — tell us what to build next; we build what gets asked for.

A word on privacy

You create a free account (email + password) so your workgroup can share the tools. We store only your account and any reference standard you submit. Your inventory, COAs and certificates stay in your own folder. Reading a COA happens on your device — the certificate image is never uploaded.

Compound reference

Published physical-property data, gathered into one place. Free to use.

Reference & education

The working chemistry behind the tools — concentration math, standard preparation, uncertainty, chromatography and spectroscopy — each with the formula and a worked example you can check by hand. Free, no account needed.

Concentration & units Preparing standards Uncertainty & sig-figs Chromatography Spectroscopy & VUV Constants & solvents ASTM methods

1 · Concentration & units

The first place errors creep in is mixing a mass basis with a volume basis. Always know which one a number is on.

Mass fraction (w/w) — analyte mass ÷ total mass. Temperature-independent, so it's the reference basis for a gravimetric standard.

% w/w = (m_analyte ÷ m_total) × 100 ppm w/w = mg analyte per kg = × 10⁶

Mass / volume (w/v) — analyte mass ÷ final volume. This is what a volumetric flask gives you.

mg/L = m_analyte(mg) ÷ V(L) = g ÷ mL × 10⁶ · µg/mL ≡ mg/L

ppm — the trap. In a dilute aqueous solution (density ≈ 1 g/mL) ppm w/w ≈ mg/L. In a hydrocarbon matrix (density ≈ 0.7 g/mL) they differ by ~30 % — 1 mg/L of sulfur in isooctane is ≈ 1.45 ppm w/w. State which you mean.

ppm w/w = (mg/L) ÷ density(g/mL)

Molarity & normality.

M (mol/L) = (g/L) ÷ MW · N = M × (equivalents per mole)

Worked: 2.50 g of thiophene (MW 84.14) made to 1.000 L → C = 2.50 g/L ÷ 84.14 = 0.0297 M = 2500 mg/L = 2500 ppm w/v. In isooctane (0.692 g/mL) that same 2500 mg/L is 2500 ÷ 0.692 = 3613 ppm w/w.

2 · Preparing standards

Purity correction. A "99.5 %" reagent is 0.5 % something-else. Weigh a little extra so the pure analyte still hits target — every value on a certificate must be purity-corrected.

m_analyte = m_weighed × (purity ÷ 100) → C = m_analyte ÷ (mass or volume of the batch)

Gravimetric vs volumetric. Gravimetric (weigh everything, w/w) is the more accurate and temperature-independent basis and is preferred for a reference standard; volumetric (make to a flask mark, w/v) is faster and carries the glassware tolerance into the result. Both live under Tools.

Dilution. Concentration × volume is conserved:

C₁V₁ = C₂V₂ · dilution factor DF = V_final ÷ V_aliquot · C_diluted = C_stock ÷ DF

Worked: to make 50 mL of 10 mg/L from a 1000 mg/L stock: V₁ = C₂V₂ ÷ C₁ = (10 × 50) ÷ 1000 = 0.50 mL stock, made up to 50 mL (DF = 100). A 0.50 mL aliquot is near the low end for a pipette — the Serial dilution tool flags steps that need less than you can measure reliably and stages them instead.

3 · Uncertainty & significant figures

A concentration without an uncertainty is an opinion. Independent contributions combine in quadrature (root-sum-of-squares), then expand by a coverage factor k.

u_c = √(u₁² + u₂² + …) · U = k · u_c k = 2 ≈ 95 % confidence

For a weighed-then-diluted standard the two dominant terms are the balance readability d on each weighing and, for a volumetric prep, the flask tolerance ΔV:

U = 2 × √[(d ÷ m_weighed)² + (ΔV ÷ V_final)²] × C

Significant figures — the rule the certificate follows: round the expanded uncertainty to two significant figures, then round the value so its last shown digit sits at the same decimal place as the uncertainty. Extra digits imply a precision the instrument doesn't have.

Worked: C = 248.746… mg/L, U = 2.03 mg/L → U rounds to 2.0, so C rounds to the tenths: 248.7 ± 2.0 mg/L. Not 248.746 ± 2.03.

4 · Chromatography essentials

Retention factor (how long past the void the peak is held):

k = (t_R − t₀) ÷ t₀ t₀ = unretained / void time

Efficiency (theoretical plates, from peak width):

N = 16 (t_R ÷ w)² = 5.54 (t_R ÷ w_½)² w = baseline width, w_½ = width at half height

Resolution between two peaks — the number that decides whether you can quantify them. Rs ≥ 1.5 is baseline resolution.

R_s = 2(t_R2 − t_R1) ÷ (w₁ + w₂) = 1.18(t_R2 − t_R1) ÷ (w_½1 + w_½2)

Response factor. Detectors don't respond equally per unit mass. A relative response factor scales an analyte's area against a reference (or internal standard):

RRF = (A_analyte ÷ C_analyte) ÷ (A_ref ÷ C_ref)

Detection & quantitation limits from the calibration (σ = SD of the blank or of the curve residuals, S = slope):

LOD = 3.3 σ ÷ S · LOQ = 10 σ ÷ S

Retention index (Kovats) puts retention on a portable scale anchored to n-alkanes, so a compound is recognisable across runs and columns:

I = 100 [ n + (n′−n) · (log t′_R(x) − log t′_R(n)) ÷ (log t′_R(n′) − log t′_R(n)) ]

Rule of thumb: retention time alone is never an identity — it drifts with column, carrier and temperature. An index or a response factor is what travels.

Deeper tools — column selector, method resolution doctor, calibration & RRF, Kovats — live in the free MAI-Alchemy Toolbox.

5 · Spectroscopy & VUV

Beer–Lambert — absorbance is linear in concentration through path length and the compound's molar absorptivity:

A = ε · b · c · %T = 100 × 10^−A ε = L·mol⁻¹·cm⁻¹, b = path (cm)

Because ε is an intrinsic property, a spectrum is a compositional fingerprint — the basis for identifying and quantifying a species from its absorbance, calibration-free when ε is known.

Vacuum-UV (VUV) detection records a full 120–240 nm absorbance spectrum at every retention time. Most analytes have distinct VUV signatures even when they co-elute, so overlapping peaks can be deconvolved by spectral shape rather than separated in time — and isomers that are near-identical to other detectors are often distinguishable. This is the physics the LUMA library is built on.

6 · Constants & common solvents

Reference values at ~20–25 °C, from published data — verify against your lot's certificate for any critical calculation.

Solvent	Density g/mL	BP °C	MW
Isooctane (2,2,4-TMP)	0.692	99.2	114.23
n-Heptane	0.684	98.4	100.20
n-Hexane	0.659	68.7	86.18
Cyclohexane	0.779	80.7	84.16
Methanol	0.792	64.7	32.04
Ethanol	0.789	78.4	46.07
2-Propanol	0.785	82.6	60.10
Acetone	0.791	56.1	58.08
Acetonitrile	0.786	81.6	41.05
Dichloromethane	1.326	39.6	84.93
Toluene	0.867	110.6	92.14
Carbon disulfide	1.263	46.2	76.14
Water	0.998	100.0	18.02

Physical constant	Value
Gas constant R	8.314 J·mol⁻¹·K⁻¹
Molar volume, ideal gas (0 °C, 1 atm)	22.414 L/mol
Molar volume, ideal gas (25 °C, 1 atm)	24.465 L/mol
Avogadro's number	6.022 × 10²³ /mol
Standard temperature (0 °C)	273.15 K

7 · Common ASTM / petrochemical methods

The methods the LUMA library and these tools are built around. Always work from the current published standard — the notes below are orientation, not a substitute.

Something you'd like explained here, or a worked example you keep re-deriving? Tell us on the Suggestions page — we add what gets asked for.

Thank you for submitting a reference standard

Standards Portal