Brenna Bierman
@brennabierman.bsky.social
Graduate student in the Rhodes Lab at UW-Madison, materials chemistry
Batteries based on sodium ions are entering mass production. Nature reports how some researchers say they could ultimately be a cheaper, safer alternative to lithium in electric cars and other energy applications. 🌎🧪
Beyond lithium: how sodium-ion batteries could change the world
Batteries based on sodium ions are entering mass production. Some researchers say they could ultimately be a cheaper, safer alternative to lithium in electric cars and other energy applications.
go.nature.com
My second-to-last PhD paper is out in JOC, and it's one of my favorites! We looked at how flexible tether composition affects bifunctional catalysis. 🧵 #Chemsky #Catalysis doi.org/10.1021/acs....
Bifunctional Catalysis of a Crossed Aldol Condensation by Diamines: Impact of Tether Composition and Length
The crossed aldol condensation between hydrocinnamaldehyde and 2,6-dimethoxybenzaldehyde was used to explore bifunctional catalysis by a set of diamines. The catalytic mechanism appears to involve nuc...
doi.org
Nature research paper: Observation of a superfluid-to-insulator transition of bilayer excitons go.nature.com/4alOEkf
Observation of a superfluid-to-insulator transition of bilayer excitons - Nature
Transition of superfluid to insulator is observed in the layer-imbalanced regime of bilayer magnetoexcitons.
go.nature.com
Duplicates of crystal structures are flooding databases, implicating repositories hosting organic, inorganic, and computer-generated crystals. The issue raises questions about curation practices at databases and claims around novelty. cen.acs.org/research-int... #chemsky 🧪
The duplicates that haunt crystallography databases
Researchers call for retraction of two recent <i>Nature</i> studies about AI-generated crystals
cen.acs.org
Our work examining SnxTaSe2 is out in @jacs.acspublications.org! From a single intercalated TMD growth composition, we find unexpected structural diversity that is not captured by common characterization techniques. #chemsky 🧪 pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Superconducting Sn-Intercalated TaSe2: Structural Diversity Obscured by Routine Characterization Techniques
Using Sn-intercalated TaSe2 as a model system, we demonstrate the presence of structural heterogeneity captured by single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD) and scanning transmission electron microscop...
pubs.acs.org
"An outstanding accomplishment": The MagLab sets a new world record. nationalmaglab.org/news-events/...
My work assessing the effect of preorganization on dihydrazide activity is out in @jacs.acspublications.org. We find that dihydrazides with flexible tethers can replicate much of the catalytic activity of complex dihydrazides with preorganized foldamer scaffolds. #Chemsky doi.org/10.1021/jacs...
Bifunctional Catalysis of Aldol Reactions by Foldamer Dihydrazides: Assessment of Conformational Preorganization
We previously reported that molecules containing two cyclic hydrazide units connected by a polymethylene linker could catalyze aldol condensations via a bifunctional mechanism. One hydrazide apparentl...
doi.org
A key study claiming to provide evidence of Majorana quasiparticles has received an extensive correction five years after it was published go.nature.com/45RK3UE
Controversial quantum-computing paper gets hefty correction — but concerns linger
The journal Science has lifted an expression of concern on a paper claiming evidence of Majorana quasiparticles and added new details.
go.nature.com
#chemsky, have you used a Wisconsin Photoreactor? I designed them and will soon defend my PhD. I’d like to include photos of Wisconsin Photoreactors in use by other chemists in my defense. Please share (reply to this post or DM me) a photo of your photoreactor in action! doi.org/10.1021/acs....
Versatile Open-Source Photoreactor Architecture for Photocatalysis Across the Visible Spectrum
Adoption of commercial photoreactors as standards for photocatalysis research could be limited by high cost. We report the development of the Wisconsin Photoreactor Platform (WPP), an open-source phot...
doi.org
Our work on 2M-WSe2 is out now in Adv. Funct. Mater.! doi.org/10.1002/adfm...
Evidence for Topological States and a Lifshitz Transition in Metastable 2M‐WSe2
This study demonstrates the Fermi surface characteristics and transport properties of 2M-WSe2 bulk single crystals. The measurements and first-principles calculations reveal multiple Fermi pockets wi...
doi.org
My work on bifunctional organocatalysis of aldol reactions by flexible dihydrazides is out in JACS (@pubs.acs.org). I find that hydrazide units connected by long, flexible linkers offer significant rate enhancement relative to monohydrazides. doi.org/10.1021/jacs... #ChemSky
Dual Activation Modes Enable Bifunctional Catalysis of Aldol Reactions by Flexible Dihydrazides
Hydrazides are known to catalyze reactions of α,β-unsaturated aldehydes via transient iminium formation. The iminium intermediate displays enhanced electrophilicity, which facilitates conjugate additi...
doi.org
