Michael Katz
banner
majikatz.bsky.social
Michael Katz
@majikatz.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Chemistry at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador with interest in Porous Materials (MOFs!).
Just ordered two!
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
November 19, 2025 at 3:30 PM
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.
October 27, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Reposted by Michael Katz
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...
Call for Papers: Fundamental Advances in Metal-Organic Frameworks – Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog
blogs.rsc.org
October 21, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Reposted by Michael Katz
Influence of Charge Compensating Anions on the Adsorption of Perfluorobutanesulfonate in MOF-808 http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.5c05815
September 18, 2025 at 3:13 PM
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.
August 7, 2025 at 5:08 AM
Visited the old stomping grounds with the fam today @sfuscience.bsky.social
August 6, 2025 at 3:02 AM
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).
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....
July 8, 2025 at 9:07 PM
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!
June 4, 2025 at 9:27 PM
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).
May 8, 2025 at 5:06 PM
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.
April 1, 2025 at 7:44 PM
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
Dr. Michael Katz - Porous Materials
Memorial University of Newfoundland -- Chemistry
katzresearchgroup.com
March 31, 2025 at 3:49 PM
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.
January 28, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Is it a polymorph if the connectivity (or topology) is identical but it’s a different unit cell (not just different lengths)?
January 27, 2025 at 3:43 AM
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
January 15, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Has anyone ever made a cloud chamber and if so, then is there a downside to acrylic over glass?
January 10, 2025 at 9:58 PM
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.
www.point506.com
December 18, 2024 at 2:21 PM
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.
November 21, 2024 at 10:05 PM
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
June 13, 2024 at 10:32 PM
Only a few days left to apply.
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...
sciences-m.academickeys.com
March 27, 2024 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by Michael Katz
The CSC Inorganic Division has made it to Bluesky!
February 21, 2024 at 11:28 PM
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...
sciences-m.academickeys.com
February 21, 2024 at 11:30 PM
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.
Methyl Red Based Metal-Organic Frameworks for the Selective and Tuneable Sensing of Ammonia Gas
This work examines a family of MOFs that are colourimetric sensors to acid and base vapours. With the strongest colour change associated with strong base vapours such as ammonia, this material has can...
pubs.rsc.org
November 16, 2023 at 8:08 PM