Chemistry in Pictures: Turning blue

Ania Sergeenko crystallized this colorful sample of potassium ferricyanide during her time as a PhD candidate at Simon Fraser University. Her lab, led by Daniel Leznoff, often used it as a starting material to make the pigment Prussian blue. “In the Leznoff research lab, we prepared coordination polymers with similar composition and crystal structures to Prussian Blue … which could have applications in molecular storage, magnetism, or chemical sensing,” Sergeenko explains. Today, Sergeenko develops chemical sensors as a postdoc with the University of Alberta and Applied Quantum Materials. But instead of Prussian blue analogues, she now works with silicon quantum dots.

Submitted by Ania Sergeenko

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