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Darren Broom

@darrenbroom.bsky.social

470 followers 560 following 410 posts

Product Manager @hidenisochema.bsky.social. Hydrogen storage, gas adsorption & reproducibility enthusiast. Salford University alumni, ex-neutron scatterer & adopted Mancunian. Associate Editor, Adsorption. Editorial Board Member, Green Carbon.

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Darren Broom @darrenbroom.bsky.social · Nov 11

Hello BlueSky!

I'm a Product Manager @hidenisochema.bsky.social, a leading manufacturer of gas & vapor sorption instruments. In my spare time, amongst other things, I write articles like this, on gas #adsorption, #hydrogen storage & #reproducibility:

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Challenges in characterizing adsorbents for gas storage and separation - Adsorption

Porous adsorbents, including activated carbons, zeolites, silicas, and newer materials such as metal–organic frameworks, have been investigated extensively for gas storage and separation applications....

link.springer.com

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Reposted by Darren Broom

Tim Schmidt @schmidtim.bsky.social · 11h

#chemnobel #chemsky #ozchem

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Darren Broom @darrenbroom.bsky.social · 4m

It's great to see that Prof. Kitagawa still works in the lab!

Reposted by Darren Broom

Jet Lee @jetsinglee.bsky.social · 5h

Very strange to see #MOFs on mainstream tv after the #NobelPrize in #chemistry announcement. I guess it’s going to pop up in everyday lives more than usual!

Congratulations again to the winners and a special shoutout to Prof. Susumu Kitagawa - a partial alumni gathering photo below #chemsky

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Reposted by Darren Broom

Lotsch Group @lotschgroup.bsky.social · 4h

Celebrating the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025 with Omar Yaghi (and Ben Feringa, right as well as Berend Smit, left) at the Solvay Conference in Brussels 😜!

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Darren Broom @darrenbroom.bsky.social · 12m

I think I recognise that structure. Is it CAKE-5?

Darren Broom @darrenbroom.bsky.social · 1h

One bonus link. I just did a quick search for "parenthesis" & this dictionary page came up. The example of using dashes is:

"Her youngest sister - the one who lives in Australia - is coming over next summer"

That seems to even use hyphens (they are only en dashes, at a stretch, but not em dashes).

parenthesis

1. a remark that is added to a sentence, often to provide an explanation or…

dictionary.cambridge.org

Darren Broom @darrenbroom.bsky.social · 1h

As an example, I used en dashes in this article & the publisher didn't change them.

In other cases, I think my en dashes have been changed to em dashes during typesetting. I genuinely don't know if this is a style issue or if the usage in the linked article is just plain wrong.
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Improving Reproducibility in Hydrogen Storage Material Research

Accurately characterising the hydrogen sorption properties of materials is critical to improving reproducibility in hydrogen storage material research. This review covers the main techniques used for...

chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Darren Broom @darrenbroom.bsky.social · 1h

Ah, thanks. I hadn't got that far down the hyphen page & didn't think dashes would be on it!

Maybe thinking of them like that would help.

I really like using dashes for parenthesis, but I struggle to feel strongly about en vs em. To me, en dashes look fine.
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Reposted by Darren Broom

Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 1d

Oh, the “vomiting ferret” model is absolutely a real thing - I’ve encountered it in my own drug discovery career.

They’re one of the smallest animals that show this response- weirdly, rodents can’t do it at all.

Dan Kaszeta FRHistS @dankaszeta.bsky.social · 1d

that's my day gone then

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Darren Broom @darrenbroom.bsky.social · 1h

Thanks for that. It looks very useful, but am I right that it doesn't distinguish between en dashes & em dashes? That would simplify things. I wonder also if I've been confused previously between UK & US usage. For dashes, I usually use an en dash & let the typesetters change it, if necessary.

Reposted by Darren Broom

Neil Withers @neilwithers.bsky.social · 2h

This will clear things up www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/...

The Hyphen and the Dash

www.sussex.ac.uk

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Darren Broom @darrenbroom.bsky.social · 2h

I suppose it depends on the intended meaning (have you fried a fish merchant & is there a man eating a fish?). However, I would also say that if these two examples need punctuation ("fried-fish merchant" & "man-eating fish"?) then it would indeed be a hyphen rather than an en dash...

Darren Broom @darrenbroom.bsky.social · 16h

You've just reminded me of this quite early (in MOF history) paper. HKUST-1 is described in the title as a "metallo-organic molecular sieve"!

Metallo-organic molecular sieve for gas separation and purification

An improved synthesis process was developed for large-scale production of a highly porous material, [Cu3(BTC)2(H2O)x]n, i.e., polymeric copper(II) ben…

www.sciencedirect.com

Darren Broom @darrenbroom.bsky.social · 17h

Okay, so that's different to how I was thinking of the use of metal & organic in the name...

Darren Broom @darrenbroom.bsky.social · 17h

Okay, I think that is very subtle. I was thinking it just defines that the framework more specifically consists of metals & organic parts (maybe like an alternative to metal/organic). So, it is a framework that happens to also be metal-organic. Therefore, metal-organic framework would be fine.

Darren Broom @darrenbroom.bsky.social · 17h

Thanks for the further info, but I'm still stuck. In that article, is "metal-organic" not a compound adjective that it says can use either a hyphen or an en dash?

Darren Broom @darrenbroom.bsky.social · 17h

I can be quite pedantic about punctuation & sentence structure, etc, but I have to admit that the differences between hyphens, en dashes & em dashes remain a mystery to me. Is this a case where it should be an en dash?

Or have I completely missed the point?

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Darren Broom @darrenbroom.bsky.social · 18h

This is very good.

Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 18h

This year's Nobel - commentary and background, with a few more bonus MOF pictures of my own:

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry: Metal-Organic Frameworks

www.science.org

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Darren Broom @darrenbroom.bsky.social · 18h

I think it may have worked temporarily, but I suspect everyone's going to disappear again tomorrow.

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Reposted by Darren Broom

Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 18h

Last bit of MOF stuff for the day… this is one of my very favourite cover lines from back when I was the Chief Ed of @natchem.nature.com… - was incredibly fitting for the paper too (rdcu.be/eJ4zt by @randallsnurr.bsky.social and co-workers) #chemsky 🧪

The cover of the Feb 2012 issue of Nature Chemistry. A series of connectors in various colours are connected with short straight rods. Off to the side is a pile of different coloured connectors. The main cover line is: Every MOF you make.

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Darren Broom @darrenbroom.bsky.social · 20h

That is good reference-ordering...

Darren Broom @darrenbroom.bsky.social · 20h

I think you're looking for @natfood.nature.com. I'm sure they'd take the subject very seriously indeed.

Reposted by Darren Broom

Nikolay Tumanov @ntumanovxray.bsky.social · 23h

*foil hat on* The only reason today's Nobel prize was given to #MOFs, is to revive #ChemSky aka #ChemTwitter - just look on your feed now.

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Darren Broom @darrenbroom.bsky.social · 23h

Having said that, I'm posting this from near Manchester, where we have the National Graphene Institute, which opened in 2015 & cost £61 million. So the Nobel Prize didn't do too much harm there, in terms of funding...

National Graphene Institute - The University of Manchester

www.graphene.manchester.ac.uk

Darren Broom @darrenbroom.bsky.social · 23h

Sorry, that was a joke. Some MOF groups are very well-funded (or seem able to access large amounts of cash).

That's a good question, though. I reckon it could go either way. You are either investigating "Nobel Prize-winning technology" or just doing stuff that's already been done (like a layabout).

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