Nicolas

Today I finally submitted the second revisions for my corrole paper. I hope this is the last round. For the first revisions I basically redid all calculations and it took me a month. For second I did new experiments. When it is accepted it will be my first corrole paper done in Argentina.

Temp files full folder

Thanks for the support!

We Argentinians are very resilient and resourceful, but after years of almost no funding, no scholarships, almost no candidates, it's getting hard. And we still have at least two more years of this! 7/7

This is so backwards!! They remove the funding, vilify scientists, pay lousy salaries and terrible scholarships and then pretend that we suddenly come up with industry partners to develop new technologies?? With what?? 6/n

My colleagues and I have many ideas which could perhaps lead to tech transfer, and some perhaps to products. But to test and develop those ideas takes years, a lot of people, and funding orders of magnitude higher than we have rn. 5/n

Without people starting their PhDs there is going to be a huge generational breach that is going to propagate over generations. There is also a freeze on hiring support staff of any kind (admin, technical, maintenance, etc). So how are groups going to deliver on these applied science projects? 4/n

There has been a reduction both in PhD and PD scholarships, but also on people interested in pursuing science. PhD scholarships in some cities like mine are not enough to live unless your parents or someone support you. Many labs are very empty. 3/n

My guess is that people will try to claim they are now doing applied science and technology, and we will see a lot of money wasted on failed attempts by people who have a resume but have no real applied science experience. 2/n

Our govt announced (after rescinding all the grants that were assigned and not opening new calls for 2 years) that they are going to fund projects with applications that can be translated to products. Basically no more basic science, only tech startup money. 1/n

YouTube video by Prof Nicolas DIY UV filter using Iron trichloride and PVA gel

Posting again! Homemade UV filter using FeCl3, PVA and glycine. For taking pictures of fluorescent solutions. #science #diy #chemistry

youtu.be/Oyt2jbwTyuE

YouTube video by Prof Nicolas DIY UV filter using Iron trichloride and PVA gel

A short video demonstrating a simple UV filter based on PVA and Fe(III) salts.
#realtimechem #chemsky

youtu.be/Oyt2jbwTyuE

Now I suddenly want to start working in MOFs. I have prepared tetracarboxyphenylporphyrin, but couldn't purify it it was too insoluble in DCM and the like and impurities were too soluble in MeOH/H2O. I will have to revisit it.

Is it possible to fix a distance or an angle during the optimization? Could be a good way to run a very fast surface scan as guess for later DFT optimization. Or even perhaps automate it for an initial and final value and number of steps.

Great! So this is similar to the optimization it had, but in real time?

I'm an Argentinian. There is zero chance that Milei government will get re-elected. It's a disaster on all sides, they ran out of money to keep the peso tied down and no amount of US$ will be enough. Same story as all right wing govts only faster.

My choice starter word finally worked in wordle. First time I do it in one guess!

Picture of my laptop showing pending review action in ACS account. I'm Lao holding a mate cup with the mate "straw". I'm sitting on the couch and a plant can be seen in the background.

Saturday morning working a little before the family wakes up. I have my own revisions to finish but I decided to procrastinate! #science #chemsky

Excuse the mess!

I made an UV filter for taking photos of red fluorescence in my corroles,so I can avoid the violet shine and have better sensitivity. Still needs some tweaking as it was somewhat opaque. But filters really well!
#realtimechem #chemsky

8 viales with solutions ranging from purple to green to brown, from different corroles.

This is not red cabbage! These are all #corrole solutions! Beautiful colours made by Gianella at our lab! #realtimechem #chemsky #science

Ok I will test that next time I record. Thank you!

The other thing, which I'm not sure why it happens, is that while screen recording my camera freezes while animating stuff in Avogadro. It doesn't happen with other software. Is it possible the animations in Avogadro are more demanding?

Thanks! I forgot to check the newest version. I see the resolution of the iso surface seems higher than that of the atoms. It is quite alright actually. I couldn't change the shininess of the orbitals, which changed by itself when I changed the colours.

YouTube video by Prof Nicolas Avogadro2: How to plot molecular orbitals and save images

New video on orbital plotting with @avogadro.cc
It's a short one, I like the plots but couldn't find how to change several settings.
#chemsky #compchem #science

youtu.be/q6NuntAZdIw

As an EPR spectroscopist we are gonna have a problem!

Did some cleaning in the backyard. We had a non functioning orchard, made on top of a pile of construction debris from when our house was built. I never grew anything there and finally started to clean it up. We also rented a container for a lot of junk.

For me its schlenk lines or any kind of schlenk flask connected to a high vacuum pump. I fear that it will blow up, or my sample will get ejected.

Computer screen showing a scanning electron micrograph of a large conglomerate of spherical nanoparticles made of PLA and a chromophore.

The work I did Tuesday washing and resuspending our polymer/corrole nanoparticles was well worth it! Some of the pictures were quite nice and I learned a lot! #corrole #nano #photodynamictherapy #chemsky #science

Yesterday and today were productive days. I did some stuff in the lab, graded two finals, almost finished the revisions for a paper, which amounted to redoing almost all the calculations, and even cleaned up part of the lab, sanding the crust on the floor included. I'm tired but really content.