Everything Needs Poetry (Just Ask a Postman)
Hello! Sorry I've been so long without an update. I had a visit to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and I'll disperse some of those photos through the next few posts. There I discovered this work by Benjamin Zephaniah, and have been looking at some more of his poetry, which I've been enjoying a lot.
It is not gravity that gives us roots, but mechanical forces can create bonds -- I have been replicating our mechanochemical synthesis of porphyrins in the labs here at Birmingham and here is some proof: that spot that I circled, it's a porphyrin!
I know, impressive, right? This is from two-step ball milling, first with an acid catalyst to form the cyclized product (porphyrinogen), then addition of an oxidizing agent with further milling gives the porphyrin, which is also characterized by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Ultraviolet-Visible Spectroscopy (UV-Vis).
So, having gotten a handle on the basis reaction and characterization with the instrumentation here, I have a lot of questions I want to explore related to other mechanochemical approaches (more on that next time), getting down to the mechanism of the mechanochemical reaction vs. solution, making more complicated (and more useful) porphyrin products, and incorporating metals. Everyone in the Friscic group is really collegial and helpful, I couldn't get all this done without them!
Back to the museum, I found some excellent Sister Suffragette history to share with you. We're clearly soldiers in petticoats...
This plaque was not displayed in a prominent place, but pretty impressive that she will be recognized at the museum in perpetuity.
Lady Justice presiding over the West Midlands Federation of Suffragettes.
https://youtu.be/5LdLBGr93jk?feature=shared
I promise I will be updating more frequently. Thanks for checking in!