Is It Art or Science – or both?

The work of recent chemistry graduate Uziel Gonzalez (BS ‘24) was featured in the September 24 publication of C & E News feature “Chemistry in Pictures.” 

Tom Richmond said for the C & E News “While purifying tert-butylmalononitrile, a useful starting material for the synthesis of organic electronic materials, University of Utah chemistry undergraduate Uziel Gonzalez discovered the molecule had made beautiful, fernlike crystals via room temperature sublimation. Though not suitable for structure determination by X-ray diffraction, which was the original goal, the crystals in the resulting 6 x 4 mm microscope image were suitable for framing. The acidic C–H bond of the malononitrile provides a useful handle to make new carbon-carbon bonds with highly fluorinated aromatics. 

 Uziel Gonzalez is one of the 2024 Laya F. Kesner Award recipient. When he received the award, Professor Thomas Richmond noted, “Uziel was an outstanding student in Inorganic Chemistry, has been involved with the ACS student affiliate's group and even managed to make some new fluorocarbon molecules in my lab. Ultimately, he would like a career as an FBI Agent."  

The feature “showcases the beauty of chemistry, chemical engineering and related sciences” to the 150,000 readers of C&E News and beyond.  As noted in the article, an elegant leaf-like structure was formed upon sublimation of a volatile organic compound.  Although not suitable for crystallography, it was suitable for framing. 

Below are a few more examples of crystal photography from the Richmond Lab. 

 

A supramolecular complex of acetic acid dimers and C6(CN)5CF3 by Anneke Enquist (Honors BS, ‘24) 

A silver complex of azahelicene crystallized by undergraduate Michelle Phan (Honors BS ‘25) 

A platinum coordination complex (yellow) does not crystallize withperylene orange.