Amazing Things I Learned Today!

[Sa'ar Chasm]

Apparently you can buy deuterated, HPLC grade acetonitrile by the litre.
The price is "please inquire".

To put this in perspective, HPLC-grade solvents are generally more expensive than regular solvents because extra effort has gone into removing the impurities. You can generally buy this in 4L bottles.

Acetonitrile saw a spike in price because the industrial process that produced it as a byproduct went belly-up during the economic meltdown. The Great Acetonitrile Shortage is over, but I think the price is still hovering above where it used to be.

Deuterated solvents have had all their Hs replaced by deuterium (the stuff that makes the Enterprise go), a rarer isotope of hydrogen and the stuff that makes heavy water heavy. These are typically sold on a much smaller and can go for $30-$50 for 10 grams (about 10-10 mL).

Putting all that together and then selling it by the litre must be monstrously expensive, as is the HPLC-NMR instrument that requires it. If you want to use it for an experiment, it has to be really important.