Different pigments and aroma chemicals are tested by and adjusted in the product by the QC chemist. All cleaning and hygiene products have these sort of "accessory" chemicals that provide the distinct scent or colour, such as green apple-scented and coloured detergent or coconut shampoo. It's also a vital selling point of the product. Compounds like aldehydes and benzene, which although are highly toxic and dangerous, provide a nice, sweet smell to products like detergents. Joe has to be careful when handling these chemicals, but he makes sure that there isn't too high of a concentration of these additives in the sample solution by using other methods such as titration HPLC, and colorimetry. Fatty aldehydes, which are long chains of carbon atoms that have a terminal aldehyde group are the types of aldehydes that are commonly used by QC chemists to adjust the fragrance of the product. Aromatic aldehydes such as benzaldehyde are also compounds that have a pleasant odour and used in Joe's industry. These compounds can be obtained from nature as raw materials, or they can be formed by oxidation of primary alcohols. However, Joe doesn't really perform the oxidation in the lab, as it takes time, and the quality/amount produced is not sufficient enough.
The structure of benzaldehyde. Fatty aldehyde above.
The usage of aromatics and aldehydes' scents to adjust the fragrance in QC reminds me of our study of esters and the specific esters that have a distinct scent used for different purposes in different industries. This was discovered through the esterification lab, and now I have found a place (quality control chemistry!) where these concepts can be applied in the real world.
The structure of ethyl ethanoate is shown above, and it has a distinct "nail polish remover" scent.
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