Yeah, he spent years trying to turn lead into gold. Everyone should have a hobby...
Not so! He was convinced that alchemical writings were a transmission of secret knowledge from a former "age of wisdom", and sought to discover their meaning by carrying out various alchemical experiments, mostly involving heating a big pot of mercury on a fire in his room.
Am not that much of an expert on Newton so I don’t know if you are pulling my leg, or not.
I don’t doubt he was interested in chemistry. I have a hard time believing that he was that interested in gold. Gold to him, was The Bible and the truths therein.