Anyone looking to build a curriculum map for their department, I have been working on one for a program review. Check it out at: majikatz.github.io/CurricuMap All work is client side not server side.

New feature drop!

Atomicity: a digital lab notebook 🇨🇦@atomicity-eln.bsky.social · 3w ago

New in Atomicity: nonlinear curve fitting, built right into your lab notebook. Fit your data to built-in models (Langmuir, Michaelis-Menten, sigmoids & more) or write your own equation. See stats, errors, and correlation warnings — then save the fit straight into your notebook.

While I’m coding, check out my crystal field visualizer (works for MO and other theories too). www.katzresearchgroup.com/d-orbital-vi...

Took a break from coding the last little bit to finish a few projects (stay tuned). I am back into it for a paper and also for some teaching tools. I updated the closepacked viewer that I built a few years back. More features, smoother, and ideally better for teaching materials chemistry.

Anyone interested in following along to see how it works and what features we are are working on, follow the project below :).

Atomicity: a digital lab notebook 🇨🇦@atomicity-eln.bsky.social · 5mo ago

We are working on developing a digital lab notebook for university researchers. Our goal is to help organize data. Follow along and we will describe some of our features. #WelcomeToTheCity

I’ve been working on a work/personal project for the last few years. I want to introduce you to Atomicity.ca a digital lab notebook designed with professors and graduate students in mind. Still working on more features, but happy to share.

Atomicity | Digital Lab Notebook for University Research Labs

Welcome to Atomicity, a digital lab notebook designed in canada for canadian university labs.

atomicity.ca

Was solving a structure the other day and superflip claimed it was P b c a. You can see all the connectivity with an 80+% Rvalue from the primary solution. Systematic absences show its P b c m (or P b c 21 of course). 9% without hydrogen atoms. Always learning and looking at my systematic absences.

Giant thank you to @barryblight.bsky.social from UNB for coming out to @memorialfutureu.bsky.social to give two seminars in the chemistry department. Only one snow storm delay and a few of my bad puns to contend with. Thanks Barry!

Just ordered two!

Stieber Lab@stieberlab.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Thrilled to announce publication of the crystallography children’s book illustrated by undergraduate Justine Wong! You can buy it here for $15: meitneriumpress.com 50% of profits will support undergrad education at the Cal Poly Pomona Crystallography Co-op. #chemsky #chemchat

Being a chemist has its advantages. I’m currently making monster spray to keep the monsters away from my daughter’s room. One part water (cold), five parts noise from the kitchen. Yield: 1 sleeping toddler.

Nice to See MOFs getting their shine. With that said, please think about contributing to a special MOF issue of @materialsadvances.rsc.org curated by @chemashlee.bsky.social, @majikatz.bsky.social, and myself. blogs.rsc.org/jm/2025/10/2...

Influence of Charge Compensating Anions on the Adsorption of Perfluorobutanesulfonate in MOF-808 http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.5c05815

I did my PhD on this. It’s a Mo source with a point detector. I learned a lot by working on it. I may also have been the last person to use it (ca. 2010). I bet I could get it started and collecting the ruby standard.

Visited the old stomping grounds with the fam today @sfuscience.bsky.social

I’m super excited to give this talk. I remember my first day in front of a cad 4 point detector and I’m looking forward to many more (but on an area detector).

Louise Dawe@louisedawe.bsky.social · last yr.

Thursday, July 10, please join the Canadian National Committee for Crystallography for our 8th Dr. Penelope Codding Lecture Series in Support of Early-Career Crystallographers, featuring Prof. Mike Katz, Memorial University. Join information on our website: xtallography.ca/index.php/co....

Malvern Panalytical visited Memorial last week. They brought a few instruments and a lot of scientific discussions with Micromeritics and SciAps. It was great. Thankyou!

Comp chem MOF peeps: any Mac/PC software available for the lay person to get surface area, pore size, etc from a CIF file? Asking for a friend (mostly).

This is what my lab thinks is a good April fools joke. It almost got me. The timing was perfect as we just replaced a valve and turned it back on.

Thesis formatting is a big task. Microsoft Word has a lot of features that can help, but it’s hard to figure out what to google/AI sometimes. I keep a list of ways to address these formatting challenges. Hope this helps :) katzresearchgroup.com/Thesis.html

My mom just texted me about Dan Shechtman’s Nobel prize. She knew him when she first started at the Technion and didn’t realize he won the prize. It’s a small world. I wonder if he remembers my mom.

Is it a polymorph if the connectivity (or topology) is identical but it’s a different unit cell (not just different lengths)?

First paper of the year is out. We set out to better understand how MOFs form in solution. 2H-NMR of d4-BDC is the way to go. Huge effort by Amanda to get this sorted out. Congratulations! @memorialu.bsky.social, #MOFs doi.org/10.1002/anie...

2H‐NMR as a Practical Tool for Following MOF Formation: A Case Study of UiO‐66

Developing the mechanism for MOF formation is crucial for the rapid development of new materials. This work demonstrates that Deuterium-NMR spectroscopy is the optimal inter-laboratory methodology fo...

doi.org

Has anyone ever made a cloud chamber and if so, then is there a downside to acrylic over glass?

If anyone is looking for cool science shirts, then check out www.point506.com. I have a few shirts from them and they are great.

Point 506 Clothing & Art

Science & Math inspired clothing. Focusing on the intersection of art and science and incorporating sacred geometry. Geeky T-shirts. Math T-shirts. Nerdy Shirts. Scientist Tshirts. Science Gifts.

point506.com

This week had two students do their comps and a student do their final MSc presentation. I’m amazed at how hard the students work and I’m so grateful to my amazing colleagues for engaging with the students on all fronts.

Happy to share that our latest manuscript is online. If you ever wanted to know what makes UiOs tick for CO2 adsorption and were afraid to ask, then don’t worry cause we did. Work is funded by NSERC, MITACS, and the government of NL. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Pore Perfection vs Defect Design: Examining the Complex Relationship between Pore Structure and Carbon Dioxide Adsorption in Zr-Based MOFs

This work examines the relationship between defects, pore size, and pore functionalization as it pertains to the enthalpy of adsorption between carbon dioxide and zirconium-based metal–organic frameworks (UiO-66 and UiO-67). When UiO-66 is synthesized without defects, carbon dioxide adsorption is more exothermic relative to when UiO-66 contains defects (−24.3 vs −20.9 kJ/mol). We repeated the experiments with pristine/defective UiO-67 and observed the opposite trend (−16.9 vs −21 kJ/mol), albeit less exothermic. With the exception of defective UiO-66, which had no change in the enthalpy of adsorption, dehydrating the cluster of pristine/defective UiO-66 (−21 kJ/mol) and UiO-67 (−14 kJ/mol) produced materials that were less exothermic upon carbon dioxide adsorption. This work indicates that there is a hierarchy of adsorption interactions that can work independently or in tandem to increase the enthalpy of adsorption. These include the small tetrahedral pore of UiO-66, hydrogen bonding, and dispersion interaction enhanced by the electron-withdrawing Zr(IV). Postsynthetic modification of the node with methanol/methoxy groups had a strong effect on the defect containing UiO-66. In this MOF, the pore sizes appeared nearly identical to the pristine UiO-66 and contained an enthalpy adsorption of −28 kJ/mol; this is the highest value obtained in this work.

pubs.acs.org

Only a few days left to apply.

Michael Katz@majikatz.bsky.social · 2y ago

The Chemistry Department at Memorial is hiring a chemist. Come be my colleague. I’m not on the search committee, but if you have questions, then I’ll do my best to answer them. sciences-m.academickeys.com/job/8zo3uhms...

The CSC Inorganic Division has made it to Bluesky!

The Chemistry Department at Memorial is hiring a chemist. Come be my colleague. I’m not on the search committee, but if you have questions, then I’ll do my best to answer them. sciences-m.academickeys.com/job/8zo3uhms...

New paper from the group: a covid and lab move special by Craig with assists from Rodney, Amanda, and Gauthaman. Work was funded by NSERC, CFI, Mitacs, and a DND supplement.