Chemistry and Poetry : My Porphyrin Story
Subhadeep is a scientist by profession, who also has a…
The journey of a chemical scientist as he delve into his past experiences with porphyrin synthesis. This narrative intertwines nostalgia with insights into the significance of porphyrins in chemistry and scientific research, highlighting the challenges and triumphs of creating molecular dyes.
Chemistry is both my passion and my profession, which led me to ponder one day why I am no longer a porphyrin chemist. This reflection took me on a nostalgic journey through my memories, intertwining the intricate world of porphyrin synthesis with the bittersweet recollections of my past research endeavors, and what resulted is ….
Why I am no longer a porphyrin chemist:
“My porphyrins of the future
Are washed into the Arabian Sea
And so, I only dream
About my porphyrins of the past
Where propionic acid reflux
And plentiful osmium tetroxide handling
Were a regular routine.
Ably supported by a proper waste disposal mechanism
And a generous supply of methylene chloride,
Where low yields were only a minor irritant
And budget was never a real constraint.
I created a diverse porphyrin library
With promising red-wavelength optical property.
But alas, now I am only caught up in my porphyrin YESTERDAY.
Without a big budget in fray and a large methylene chloride waste bin today,
I am not half the porphyrin chemist I used to be.
There’s a shadow hanging over me,
When I dream for my porphyrin YESTERDAY.”
What exactly was all that, huh? Never mind the rambling!
The Beatles inspiration wasn’t planned though. But still, life is all about inspiration and perspiration from inspiration, right? So, while PhD research taught me the concepts of molecular pigments/dyes and how to make them better in terms of their spectroscopic properties, but the perspiration was exhausted in making them! Indeed, chemical synthesis of porphyrin dyes are laborious and fraught with difficulties which could be operational (hazardous), and procedural. Nonetheless, those could inspire the reflective poet in oneself, as is evident here. But we must remember that porphyrins are truly special and worth the effort in the lab, if one is able muster the courage and resources. Why? Because synthetic porphyrins ARE a very important research area internationally, for creating novel molecular dyes for artificial light harvesting systems, for molecular imaging and for biomedical applications. But what ARE porphyrins in the 1st place? Porphyrins are ubiquitous natural pigments especially found as the heme component of haemoglobin and the chlorophyll component in leaves, responsible for the color and physico-chemical properties of those respective biomolecules. Hence, a lot of synthetic porphyrin R&D is nature inspired.
So while I have moved on to greener pastures in chemical R&D of fluorescent dyes in my academic position and also in my entrepreneurial interests as director of Fluoresight Bioprobes (www.fluoresight.in), I continue to have a keen interest in porphyrin dyes as robust research models and would like give a big thumbs up to the brave professors and scientists innovating beautiful porphyrin dyes for making our lives better and more colorful.
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Subhadeep is a scientist by profession, who also has a flair for creative writing. He is an associate professor of chemistry at BITS PILANI Goa. His debut historical fiction novel THE HIDDEN PATRIOT is available on amazon and has been well-received and reviewed positively by readers.