Chemist's radical limits of experiment hastily left (5)

I believe the answer is:

ethyl

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'chemist's radical' is the definition.
(ethyl is a hydrocarbon radical)

'limits of experiment hastily left' is the wordplay.
'limits of' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'hastily' becomes 'hy' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'left' becomes 'l' (common abbreviation).
'experiment' with its centre removed is 'et'.
'et'+'hy'+'l'='ETHYL'

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(Other definitions for ethyl that I've seen before include "Alkyl radical, base of common alcohol" , "compound" , "-- Alcohol; -- acetate" , "C2H5" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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