They tell plant workers which ingredients to use to make a chemical. They also tell the workers how long to mix chemicals, and how hot or cold the mixture should be. They watch the whole process to make sure that they get the right product at the end. Chemists test samples to make sure they meet industry and government rules. Chemists also record and report on test results.
Labs have all sorts of equipment to do experiments.
Research chemists spend most of their time in labs. Sometimes they work in offices when they have to do reports on their lab work. Although some labs are small, others are large. Some of the large labs have factories or places where workers make examples of the real products. Chemists may also do some of their research in a factory or outdoors.