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Alright guys, this thread is a dedicated MatSci and nanotech thread. Feel free to discuss all things relating to synthesis and mechanisms of your materials and your research (to whatever degree you feel comfortable). If you aren't involved in research, feel free to ask questions. Anything regarding synthetic chemistry, chemical mechanisms, or physical properties of chemical systems.

Anyone here doing anything optics related?

sort of, trying to make a material that exhibits the large photomechanical effect, scrubs CO2 from the atmosphere, clean energy, and maybe cancer too. Oh and it's like gonna be programmable too, so like we could tune it to whatever we want. Or at least that's what we said in the proposal

It is not going well. The project's horribly mismanaged. We haven't heard from our chemist in months, because somebody forgot to pay them. I just found out the other day that the team member who was supposed to be doing quantum chemistry sims to characterize our shit has not done a single one like ever.


But worst of all, I feel like I can actually save the project if I actually worked hard enough and that I'm gonna miss out on the research of a lifetime if it fails. If we can make it work we can actually do some amazing things.

I hate myself for posting on Veeky Forums instead of working on my research.

meant to say cures cancer, but I suppose it could cause cancer too.

>trying to make a material that exhibits the large photomechanical effect, scrubs CO2 from the atmosphere, clean energy, and maybe cancer too
That's a lot of boxes to tick, are you sure that you'd ever be able to-
>Or at least that's what we said in the proposal
Never mind, I totally understand now.

>It is not going well. The project's horribly mismanaged. We haven't heard from our chemist in months, because somebody forgot to pay them. I just found out the other day that the team member who was supposed to be doing quantum chemistry sims to characterize our shit has not done a single one like ever.

That's kind of awful. Are you working with a shit ton of undergrads treating it as an extracurricular or something? Or are you just trolling? How did your team forget to pay its members? How are you allowing your simulation chemist just skate by like that?

>>are you sure that you'd ever be able to
Yes, absolutely, although most might just sort of work. Though the cancer part is pretty speculative, by clean energy we mean storage. It's about engendering a new class of materials. We'd be able to tune it to what ever we want.

>>undergrads treating it as an extracurricular or something?
Replace undergrad with grad. Like I'm the only one on the project doing this for a PHd.

>>Or are you just trolling?
I wish I was

>>How did your team forget to pay its members?
I have no idea

>>How are you allowing your simulation chemist just skate by like that?
what would I do? I'm just a humble PHd student? I can't get our PI to crack the whip or get back to our original focus

>Yes, absolutely, although most might just sort of work. Though the cancer part is pretty speculative, by clean energy we mean storage.
Ah makes a little more sense, then. Are you talking about storing energy in bonds as a result of the CO2 scrubbing? It seems like these materials would require a lot of energy to regenerate if that's the case.
>It's about engendering a new class of materials. We'd be able to tune it to what ever we want.
Sounds fun, like a field of MatSci that's neither ceramics or graphene.

Or is it a new kinda graphene? Please tell me it's not more graphene.

>> Are you talking about storing energy in bonds as a result of the CO2 scrubbing?
hydrogen. We could get active absorption and desorption of stuff.
>> is it a new kinda graphene?
fuck graphene.

if you can call LSPR and SEF optics related. Been doing that for the past four years of my undergrad. Name a shape, I can probobaly make it with silver nanosolutions.

On the other hand, I did discover that silver nanoprisms naturally form wires when they evaporate on a gold mirror, so that was pretty neat.

>fuck graphene.
I'm really, really happy to hear someone else say that they're sick of the graphene meme. I swear every fucking dollar of materials research is being poured into graphene derivatives and fun and exciting new synthesis of a material that hasn't even proven itself yet.
>hydrogen. We could get active absorption and desorption of stuff.
Oh, sounds like some nifty stuff.

On a completely different note, I've always been inspired on DNA/RNA systems, and wondered if a polymer with multiple hydrogen-bonding functional groups could be used as a scaffold for assembly of other types of molecules. Granted that's similar to what proteins do, but I'd like to see if there's a way that we could simulate similar reactivity using man-made designer chemicals.

PhD in nanotech here with emphasis on catalysis.

Wow your thread is a popsci train wreck. Would have been smart to lead in with some actual workable ideas...

I don't have a whole lot of experience with LSPR or SEF, but I did talk with an undergrad researcher doing similar work with a gold/water solution once. Seemed neat but not really my personal cup of tea.

Out of curiosity, how do nanosolutions manage to direct the size and shape of gold/silver complexes?

>goes on Veeky Forums
>expects rigorous scientific discussion
For a PhD you're pretty fucking stupid, huh?

I cannot give an honest answer, as I don't believe much work has gone into the why and how, more as
>add this to some AgNO3/HAuCl4 and get something neat!

My personal hypothesis is that the local electron cloud at the edges of the base nanospheres (since, theoretically, the solution would initially form a sphere) is impacted by something else with either etches away (KBr) or binds to it (Tri-sodium citrate). Due to the new electron cloud, this could direct the growth of the particle. I have noticed with KBr, it tends to produce planar structured with silver. I imagine it's due to the large natures of both the Br- and Ag+ ions.

Proteins are amazing son.

Broteins :^)

Veeky Forums is where the careers of grad students go to die.

Dormant careers of established researchers can sometimes be revitalized, but if and only if they understand it is all meant to be fun and games.

>>On a completely different note, I've always been inspired on DNA/RNA systems, and wondered if a polymer with multiple hydrogen-bonding functional groups could be used as a scaffold for assembly of other types of molecules.

That's a whole field known as supramolecular chemistry. We considered going down that path at one point in this project. I don't like it though because you don't end up with very rigid structures.

Dammit I just can't say the cool thing we might be able to do with them if our shit worked. It just sounds too sci-fi.

But they are fucking hard to design to do shit we want, synthetic chemistry

synthetic chemistry is better

>I don't like it though because you don't end up with very rigid structures.

It sounds like someone is confusing Eric Drexel for a real scientist.

You might as well say the cool thing to generate buzz, because you lose face otherwise by saying lame things.

Mind telling us a bit more about it? PhD in molecular machines/actuators here (with a bit of polymer experience), so the programmable/photomechanical aspects are right up my alley.

What's the difference between this field and biochemical/genetic engineering exactly? Are you focusing on non-organic/polymeric molecules?

The shit we're working is practically Drexlerian. We are(were) trying to make an actuated molecular lattice structure. Molecular actuators exist, but we could do fucking cool shit with them if we organize them three-dimensionally in space.

We could do even cooler shit if we could organize them into non-periodic structures with other elements. If we make our lattice with actuators in some places and rigid struts in others, now when we actuate our lattice we can get it move in ways we want. IE make robot arms and shit.

If we have shit that is just held together by hydrogen bonds, making these things becomes not impossible. With what we're working with right now, we have to add blank and blank so stuff sticks together.

If everything's held by hydrogen bonds, it's a lot simpler we can just get the lattice components near each other and most of the time they'll probably stick together. So if we can find a way to make something that can hold and release the lattice components on command we can put this on the end of an STM, dip into a vat of actuator, release where we want to want it to go in the lattice, scan with another STM to see if we actually put anything down if no try again, repeat process for rigid strut, repeat.

So now we can make a tiny robot hand that curls into a thumbs up when we apply power to our actuators, which is good enough for a nature paper and maybe making the cover of some popsci magazines.

Then if we're really clever, and figure out how to make a tiny robot arm that we can control, then maybe we can use said robot arm to make a copy of itself.

Current tech cannot do the STM dip thing above, it's just not repeatable enough. I don't how precise enough control could be attained for the tiny robot arm, or how to recharge it with new things to place without totally fucking stuff up.

>> molecular machines/actuators
What sort? Since you said photomechanical and polymer I'm guessing you work with photochromic shit, most likely using azobenzene

Your post reads a bit popsci/naive, but the concept is definitely cool. Assembly by STM sounds like a massive pain, though (and making copies of itself sounds *ambitious*, to put it lightly). What sort of scale are we talking here? Molecular actuators in a MOF or COF or something, or nanorods/spheres/whatever?

Pretty much, but small(ish) molecules in solution (polymers were on a previous research project). It feels bad, but I don't really want to say more than that: the project I'm on is cool but very small, and I feel that Feringa/Balzani/Stoddart etc could scoop me in a month or two if my ideas are actually plausible. Hopefully in a couple of months I'll have published some stuff and planted my flag, but it's not quite there yet.

>expects a rigorous scientific discussion

since when is pointing out the problem equivalent to expecting the problem not to have occurred in the first place?

way to fail basic logic, going to go way out on the expectation limb here and assume you are too dumb to even get into a PhD program..

does one need to know organic chemistry to work on this stuff?

If you're touching polymer chemistry and synthesis in any sense, you most definitely need to know organic and a good amount of inorganic chemistry.
This is obvious bait, please return to the religious philosophy discussions on this board.
Not him, but I would say that supramolecular chemistry is a more generalized approach to macromolecules, and probably has applications outside of biological design. This is compared to biochemical engineering which limits (and I use that word tongue in cheek) you to nucleic and amino acid derivatives.

/bump

Bump

Thanks for the bumps, guys, but I'd prefer it if you brought some discussion into the thread when you do.

Anyone here do supramolecular or polymer chemistry much?