Alex J. Stirk

The fire brigade then proceeds to start setting up decontamination tents and hazmat suits in order to confront the next Chornobyl.

Be careful when you use the word "nuclear" folks.

A staff member saw the smoke but did not observe where the fire was coming from. As this was a large chemical plant, the local fire brigade has detailed plans for us. They called the fire brigade.
"I see smoke, and a potential fire in the NMR room".
"What's an NMR room?"
"Nuclear magnetic resonance"

This caused a lot of smoke, but was contained by the fume hood. However, for some reason the ventilation dumped a lot of the smoke into an adjacent room. In this case, the NMR room.

So a little different, but one about science communication.
This happened at a lab/chemical plant I was at. It happened in the lab next to mine while I was there but the interaction is second hand to me.

There was a fire in the lab in the early morning. A hotplate had overheated and ignited.

Canada Held the Door Open for International Students. Then Slammed It in Their Face | The Walrus They contributed more to the GDP than the entire auto industry. Now the country doesn’t want them anymore

Good article. I came to Canada as an international PhD student in 2012. PR in 2020.
How international students are exploited by the government and colleges is awful. Then they get blamed for all of Canada's recent problems. If you build a system, people will use it.

thewalrus.ca/canada-held-...

Microporosity of a Guanidinium Organodisulfonate Hydrogen‐Bonded Framework Pores now found! The porous polymorph of guanidinium 1,4-benzenedisulfonate, G2BDS, one of the simplest members of an archetypal class of hydrogen-bonded frameworks, was prepared from its acetone sol...

I really like the "0D" porosity stuff and anything with porosity. Lens work with Holman is great stuff. Bonus @ibrekalo.bsky.social!

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Love Len's work!

Inflatable porous organic crystals - Nature Materials Reversible and unidirectional expansion of an acicular porous molecular crystal is observed with gas uptake. Using in situ structural and photomicrographic techniques, a molecular-level insight is obt...

This paper on "Inflatable porous organic crystals", by Len Barbour & his collaborators, looks rather excellent.

#ChemSky

What a treat of a day! Carys had her first ferry ride, and I became a Canadian citizen. Sworn in by Dr. Mary White no less! A materials chemist welcomes in another.

I am pivoting to being an AI consumer. It's where the attention is.

I get AIs to watch the AI content for me so I don't have to.

I got accepted for a PhD in his group in 2012. I chose Canada instead. I often wonder what it would have been like to have accepted that offer.

Applying reticular synthesis to the design of Cu-based MOFs with mechanically interlocked linkers - Nano Research The concept of “robust dynamics” describes the incorporation of mechanically interlocked molecules (MIMs) into metal-organic framework (MOF) materials such that large amplitude motions (e.g., rotation or translation of a macrocycle) can occur inside the free volume pore of the MOF. To aid in the preparation of such materials, reticular synthesis was used herein to design rigid molecular building blocks with predetermined ordered structures starting from the well-known MOF NOTT-101. New linkers were synthesized that have a T-shape, based on a triphenylene tetra-carboxylate strut, and their incorporation into Cu(II)-based MOFs was investigated. The single-crystal structures of three new MOFs, UWCM-12 (fof), β-UWCM-13 (loz), UWCM-14 (lil), with naked T-shaped linkers were determined; β-UWCM-13 is the first reported example of the loz topology. A fourth MOF, UWDM-14 (lil) is analogous to UWCM-14 (lil) but contains a [2]rotaxane linker. Variable-temperature, 2H solid-state NMR was used to probe the dynamics of a 24-membered macrocycle threaded onto the MOF skeleton.

Both MOFs and MORFs in this one!

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Link to the deposited structure that I'm pretty sure these were from (it's been a while!)

www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk/structures/S...

Useful practices in single crystal diffraction analysis of reticular structures Single crystal diffraction analysis remains the gold standard for the three-dimensional atomic structure characterization of framework materials such as metal–organic frameworks, covalent organic fram...

My tutorial review on single crystal diffraction analysis is now online @crystengcomm.rsc.org! Students, supervisors, and reviewers: Please consider this thought-provoking read to discover many facets of the crystallographic practice that are often overlooked or misunderstood 💎 #crystallography

2025 chemistry Nobel prize goes to the scientists behind metal–organic frameworks Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi take top prize for discovery and development of versatile materials with a huge surface area

Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi are this year's winners of the Nobel prize in chemistry for their work on MOFs – just a few grams of these materials can have the same surface area as a football pitch. Julia Robinson with the details.

We have always been at war with coordination polymers.

They can be really pretty! Here's one that's a metal-organic rotaxane framework!

Stop DM'ing me for grant money. I don't have any.

Come on guys. I need this.

I wish to be referred to as Dr. Alex "Double Nobel" Stirk from now on. Please respect that.

Yeeesss!!! Since many Loeb group PhDs mixed rotaxanes with MOFs I therefore claim double Nobel status and should be treated as such. You're very welcome.

Ok, I know I'm really liking my new board, but I'm not sure it has an outboard motor.

An aperiodic tiling formed by the intersection of two square tilings of squares, one tilted by 43° with respect to the other. Many shapes are visible, diamonds, triangles, irregular octagons, and many other.

In case someone was wondering about the origin of those frequences... 😌 I admit this is pretty challenging to decipher in terms of real-space to reciprocal-space relationship, without knowing know how it is made. #FourierTransform #Crystallography #Braggyourpattern

Taken me so long to get to this point of owning my own board, but it's here! Torq 9'1". All waxed and ready to go on its maiden voyage!

TIL that you can get hydrochloric acid like this. I have no idea why we bought this. It’s giving boxed wine / to-go vibes.

To all of those going to ICCOSS '25. Just know that I'm extremely jealous and dying of envy.
I hope none of your projector adaptors work and they reschedule it to a more convenient date for me.

New Stirk just dropped. She's so little! Mom is doing great. Looking forward to taking a break from chemistry for a little bit!

🔗Medieval Chainmail meets Modern Materials! Our 2D [c2]daisy chain polymer (think: molecular-scale armor!) self-assembles into chainmail-like networks, achieving shape-shifting superpowers under stimuli.
⚡️ Breakthrough for soft robotics & smart textiles! #MaterialsScience
👉https://rdcu.be/ehOa6