Bottled Lightning

A small glass vial filled with needle-like crystalline structures that glow with an intense, electric blue bioluminescence or fluorescence. The glowing fibers are tangled and crisscrossed inside the container, casting a bright blue light that illuminates the glass against a pitch-black background. The light is most concentrated at the center of the vial, where the crystals are most dense.

Label: Bottled Lightning
Artist: Angel Chu, co-artist Nikolas Dos Santos
Description: The picture shows well defined crystals of 4,4′-((1E,1’E)-(4,6-dimethyl-1,3-phenylene)bis(ethene-2,1-diyl))bis(methylbenzene) under 310nm light. these crystals direct light through its center towards its edges like fiber optics. this structure will be used to form a substituted pyrene containing its substitutions in positions that are very scarce of examples. this material is one of many examples being synthesized for the development of a new method of assembling substituted pyrene cores.
Type: DSLR
Artist Affiliation: Undergraduate Student, Graduate Student
Department: Chemistry
Area of Research: Physical organic synthesis
Date: 2019