Saurabh Chitnis
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sschitnis.bsky.social
Saurabh Chitnis
@sschitnis.bsky.social
670 followers 830 following 66 posts
Synthetic chemist and PI for the Chitnis lab at the University of Victoria & Dalhousie University in Canada.
#maingroup #inorganic #polymers #materials #coordinationchemistry #chemsky

https://chitnislab.ca/

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9180-7907
Posts Replies Media Videos
sschitnis.bsky.social
Our latest is out now in @angewandtechemie.bsky.social!
Thermochromism, C-H/O activation & redox chem at a planar Bi triamide. Congrats to PhD Will Howlett on leading this @bsky.app initiated collab with @chrisslootweg.bsky.social + @jasonmasuda.bsky.social
@dalchemistry.bsky.social.

bit.ly/480io3T
November 17, 2025 at 3:32 PM
sschitnis.bsky.social
Ending bike week with a lunch time bike ride with @nelsonyslam.bsky.social and @mcindoe.bsky.social around some pretty parts of town.
October 4, 2025 at 5:18 AM
sschitnis.bsky.social
Our latest work reveals a new PN framework (Phosphaza-norbornanes) with a broad scope of substitution. Congrats to PhD student Joseph Nazak on his 1st paper with us! Also feat @michaelland.bsky.social + @jasonmasuda.bsky.social
cc @dalchemistry.bsky.social + Chem@uvic.ca pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...
September 24, 2025 at 5:13 PM
sschitnis.bsky.social
After a few weeks of getting the lab set up at @uvic.ca Chemistry, we're cooking again!!
A busy fumehood with reaction going on.
September 9, 2025 at 4:55 PM
sschitnis.bsky.social
Enjoying my breakfast while the deer enjoys its breakfast (neighbour's fig tree). Common sight in parts of Victoria...
September 3, 2025 at 11:50 PM
sschitnis.bsky.social
A June in 4 images. Colorado, Ottawa, Halifax, Edmonton.
Edmonton Dartmouth Csc group photo Hiking in colorado
July 2, 2025 at 5:01 PM
sschitnis.bsky.social
Congrats to PhD student Pinelopi Tsami on winning the Best Graduate Oral Presentation in Materials Chemistry prize at ChemCon2025!!

Pinelopi comes to us following an MSc in Greece. She is developing new PN cage based carboxylic acids as secondary bonding units in MOFs.

cc @dalchemistry.bsky.social
May 27, 2025 at 4:59 PM
sschitnis.bsky.social
We like main group rings/cages and were curious about POMs. Last year, thanks to a @mitacscanada.bsky.social project, we hosted PhD Jan Raabe from UniHamburg & successfully made hybrid main-group/transition-metal POMs featuring Al/Si.
Out now in @daltontrans.rsc.org!
pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...
May 27, 2025 at 2:02 PM
sschitnis.bsky.social
📢The Chitnis group is moving!!!
After 7 wonderful years on the east coast @dalchemistry.bsky.social, I'm thrilled to join University of Victoria on the west coast in July 2025.
My Dal fam gave me the best start I could have imagined, and I'm proud to carry their torch on this new adventure at UVic!
May 9, 2025 at 5:28 PM
sschitnis.bsky.social
Group hockey night! Ended in crushing defeat for the Mooseheads but solid crowd and atmosphere as usual at Scotiabank Centre. And PhD student Anjali's first hockey game!
Hockey game attendees
April 16, 2025 at 4:10 PM
sschitnis.bsky.social
Congrats to Tamina Kirsch for defending her MSc in our group! Over 3 papers + a book chapter she taught us a lot about pincer ligand design for main group chem.

Next: more main group magic in the @bismutolab.bsky.social at Bonn!

Thanks to NSERC + MITACS for funding!

@dalchemistry.bsky.social
Photo of committee
April 10, 2025 at 5:33 PM
sschitnis.bsky.social
Congrats to MSc Tamina Kirsch on her paper in the IRIS-2024 special issue of Molecules @mdpiopenaccess.bsky.social. Tamina made new pincers that might be useful to you! Key features:
*NCN pocket *L2X, LX2 or X3 *tunable *benzyl sites protected
www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/30...
@dalchemistry.bsky.social
March 18, 2025 at 5:43 PM
sschitnis.bsky.social
Authors/Publishers...stop putting sentences like this in the Preface of your science books 🤦. In this case "Inorganic Polymers" by De Jaeger and Gleria (Publishers: Nova) from late 2000s.

What is the scientific value of including this sentence? Is anything lost by removing it?
March 12, 2025 at 12:40 PM
sschitnis.bsky.social
🚨Two projects out from our lab today (links fixed!)

Second up in JACS @jamchemsoc.bsky.social

Staudinger polymerization of a P2N6 cage for hybrid materials.

Congrats Maryam! Collab with Laventure and Nazemi groups

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

cc @dalchemistry.bsky.social
March 10, 2025 at 2:33 PM
sschitnis.bsky.social
🚨Two projects out from our lab today (links fixed!)

Second up in JACS @jamchemsoc.bsky.social

Staudinger polymerization of a P2N6 cage for hybrid materials.

Congrats Maryam! Collab with Laventure and Nazemi groups

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

cc @dalchemistry.bsky.social
March 10, 2025 at 12:17 PM
sschitnis.bsky.social
🚨Two projects out from our lab today (links fixed!)

First up @angewandtechemie.bsky.social

Macro/molecular chemistry of cis/trans P2N4 rings.

Congrats @michaelland.bsky.social w/ @jasonmasuda.bsky.social for Xray

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

cc @dalchemistry.bsky.social
March 10, 2025 at 12:14 PM
sschitnis.bsky.social
My first #FluorescenceFriday post: a new inorganic polymer discovered by PDF Michael Land. This one is unique for SO MANY RESASONS, I can't wait to see how its story develops! And since the emission was also completely unexpected, it's a #FreakyFluorescenceFriday!
February 28, 2025 at 10:33 AM
sschitnis.bsky.social
My vote for the Ignobel prize: The Periodic Boiling of Eggs.

Takes 32 minutes, but produces the egg with the best texture and nutritional value.

Good thing it's a holiday weekend and due to a winter storm it'll be spent mostly indoors. Prime egg boiling time!

www.nature.com/articles/s44...
February 14, 2025 at 1:16 PM
sschitnis.bsky.social
Very cool new family of BN-organometallic polymers from Holger Helten's group at Wuerzburg!

chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
February 12, 2025 at 7:40 PM
sschitnis.bsky.social
Deadline for CSC 2025 abstracts is coming up! Just did mine (5 mins). Get'em in!

www.xcdsystem.com/cic/abstract...

And if you're looking for a main-group themed venue, please submit to our "Main Group Magic" symposium 😀. We've got an awesome lineup of invited speakers (list below)!
January 28, 2025 at 1:38 AM
sschitnis.bsky.social
Hey #chemsky! The term is almost over and things are winding down. Why not knock 1 more thing off your todo list? Submit your abstract for the main group symposium at #CSC2025 taking place in Ottawa, Canada in June!
bit.ly/maingroupmagic
We have some awesome confirmed speakers 👇
ad for the main group symposium at the CSC conference with list of confirmed speakers. Selvan Demir (Michigan State U) Simon Aldridge (Oxford U) Alexa Velian (U Washington) Joe Gilroy (Western U) Lucia Lee (Queen's U) Shih-Yuan Liu (Boston College) Erli Lu (U Birmingham) Derek Gates (U of British Columbia) Eric Rivard (U of Alberta) Marcus Drover (Western U) Caterina Ramogida (U of British Columbia) Lutz Greb (U Heidelberg)
December 18, 2024 at 6:49 PM
sschitnis.bsky.social
Joint Chitnis and Chuck Macdonald lab Xmas party. Thanks to Propeller Arcade in Halifax for an amazing all-you-can-play evening and delicious craft beers on tap!
Amazingly, some of the youngest grad students had never been to an arcade before!
December 11, 2024 at 3:55 PM
sschitnis.bsky.social
Check out this sample from our lab that behaves as a blue-yellow colorimetric thermometer!

Video credit: me, playing in the lab instead of writing the paper.
November 27, 2024 at 11:38 AM