Photo Competition "Perspectives of Chemistry" – Your Submissions

We invited you to show your creativity and passion for chemistry through creative photos and share images that represent different perspectives of chemistry, whether it’s in the lab, in an office, in a classroom, or out in the world.

Below are the submissions we have received.


Entry 1	Entry 2

“When a Beaker Receives the Illumination” Photo by Catherine Madzak, INRAE, France A sunray was playing with a beaker left on a bench in my lab and I was delighted by the shadow thus created.	“Amber vials up close!” Photo by Colleen Rosales, OpenAQ/University of California in Davis, USA I took this before I did my round of OP-DTT assays for my particulate matter analysis during my internship at Gwangju Institute of Technology in South Korea (2016). I took this photo as a commemoration of my first month in the internship!

Entry 3	Entry 4

“Beauty in a Flask” Photo by Lieke Van Gijzel, Germany The beauty of your final construct	“Chemical Symbols on the Biscuit” Photo by Gordana Pešić, Chem Food Tech School, Serbia The biscuits with chemical symbols were made to mark the 150th anniversary of the Periodic Table of the Elements

Entry 5	Entry 6

“VIBGYOR in CHEMISTRY” Photo by Anuratha Ramakrishnan, PSG College of Arts and Science, India Vanadium Iodine Boron (Ge)Germanium Yttrium Oxygen (Re)Rhenium – Periodic elements in VIBGYOR	“India Flag” Photo by E. R. Vimali, PSG College of Arts and Science, India Making colors in honor of the Indian flag in the chemistry lab

Entry 7	Entry 8

“Chemistry is an exciting invention, even in the spider web” Photo by Tharini Kannadhasan, PSG College of Arts and Science, India I found this because spider silk is made up of proteins, amino acids like glycine or alanine and only very little tryptophan. I realize that we cannot separate nature and chemistry so that I took this.	“Beauty of Crystal Growth” Photo by Brindha Veerappan, PSG College of Arts and Science, India

Entry 9	Entry 10

“Diversity of NMR Samples” Photo by Maciej Majdecki, Institute of Organic Chemistry PAS, Poland I present a bunch of NMR tubes after analysis. Colors accompany my person every day at work, especially those that are visible only under UV light	“Solid vs. Solution” Photo by Maciej Majdecki, Institute of Organic Chemistry PAS, Poland Example of a compound showing different emission colors under UV light in solid and solution

Entry 11	Entry 12

“Nature’s Sketch” Photo by Krishnamoorthy Bellie Sundaram, PSG College of Arts and Science, India The chemistry behind colors is an important fact. The iron and water content leads to the color of soil and the chlorophyll of grass imparts a green color. Shot in Selakorai village, Nilgiris District, Tamil Nadu, India.	“Crystal Syrup” Photo by Eric Whetmore, HOC Industries, Inc., USA That moment when you see a solution start to crystallize, like heat lightning stretching across the night sky

Entry 13	Entry 14

“The chemical fingerprint” Photo by Danilo Aniceto, Federal University of Viçosa, Brazil The synthesis and development of new compounds is a promising path in science. This photo is about an unpublished compound inspired by coumarins.	“The periderm of chemistry” Photo by Danilo Aniceto, Federal University of Viçosa, Brazil Periderm is an important plant tissue for tree growth. Similarly, chemistry is fundamental for the development of society.

Entry 15	Entry 16

“Ferrofluid response” Photo by Hugo Rojas Chávez, Tecnológico Nacional de México, Instituto Tecnológico de Tláhuac II, Mexico The ferrofluid acts like a magnetic solid and like a liquid.	“Tri-Colour Test” Photo by Premkumar Sakthivel, PSG College of Arts and Science, India Our Indian national flag is in solution form inside the test tube.

Entry 17	Entry 18

“Crystal Moon” Photo by Maciej Majdecki, Institute of Organic Chemistry PAS, Poland Spontaneous crystallization of a mesitylene derivative	“Pure Crystals of Benzocaine” Photo by H. Richards Raj, PSG College of Arts and Science, India The preparation of benzocaine from ethanol and p-aminobenzoic acid and under acidic conditions is an esterification reaction with the removal of water. It is a potent local anesthetic with low systematic toxicity.

Entry 19	Entry 20

“Chemical colour wheel” Photo by Bernd Stange-Grüneberg, Germany	“Chemical corals” Photo by Bernd Stange-Grüneberg, Germany Reaction product of the reaction of zinc powder and sulfur powder

Entry 21	Entry 22

“Colorful chromatography” Photo by Reinier Lemos, University of Havana, Cuba Different fractions obtained in the purification of fullerene hybrids	“Silver seaweed” Photo by August Runemark, Sweden A seaweed-like structure formed from silver nitrate

Entry 23	Entry 24

“Ecstatic – Is this the crystal?” Photo by Charafa Souilah El Hadri, University of Marburg, Germany This was a significant milestone in my Ph.D. thesis. It appears deceptively simple yet incredibly challenging. But you know what? Persist and never give up.	“On the edge of a micro universe” Photo by Smaragda-Maria Argyri, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden A colloidal suspension of CNC (cellulose nanocrystals) was dried with acoustic levitation. The residue was observed under a cross-polarized microscope.

Entry 25	Entry 26

“It is a sugar yet it has chemistry in it” Photo by Sanjay T., SRMV College of Arts and Science, India I have eaten so much of sugars. As a masters in chemistry i need to know the crystalline arrangement in it.	“Doors of chemical mystery” Photo by N. K. Sonali Nagarathinam, PSG college of Arts and Sciences, India Everything about the chemical mystery starts here, grows here, glows here

Entry 27	Entry 28

“Apostles of Dyes” Photo by Ishan Sarkar, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden Here are some of our shy (in visible spectrum) friends who, amidst the darkness (UV, 366 nm), come out of the closet and show their true colors.	“Blue bead parade” Photo by Antonio Diego Molina-Garcia, ICTAN-CSIC, Spain Simple calcium alginate beads, containing a high sucrose concentration, as a model for living tissue cryopreservation. A simple chiaroscuro picture, taken with my cellular phone.

Entry 29	Entry 30

“Red star” Photo by Antonio Diego Molina-Garcia, ICTAN-CSIC, Spain A calcium alginate bead with a high sucrose concentration (a model for living tissue cryopreservation) illuminated with a red laser beam. How much of the observed structure is real and how much simple artefact? Picture taken with a compact camera	“Scarlett-veiled pearl” Photo by Antonio Diego Molina-Garcia, ICTAN-CSIC, Spain Scattered and diffuse red laser light on a calcium alginate bead with a high sucrose concentration (a model for living tissue cryopreservation). Picture taken with a compact camera.

Entry 31	Entry 32

“Orange needle crystals” Photo by Carina Crucho, iBB – IST, Portugal This photo captures the heart of my work, where the small unfolds into the extraordinary.	“Chemistry imitating the shape of Nature” Photo by Ranjan Kharel, IISER Bhopal, India Slow evaporation unveiling the intermolecular interactions as the crystals make the trace of a tree

Entry 33	Entry 34

“Crystals in Flask” Photo by Giovanna Valentino, Università degli Studi della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Italy	“Carbon psychedelic foam” Photo by Vlastimil Mazanek, Czech Republic Colorized BW picture of carbon foam obtained by SEM

Entry 35	Entry 36

“Fifty shades of titanium oxide” Photo by Vlastimil Mazanek, Czech Republic Titanium pieces were used in a furnace to capture any residual oxygen to prevent oxidation of other materials. The different colors of surfaces are caused by interference of light on variously thick oxide layers	“Smiley” Photo by Vlastimil Mazanek, Czech Republic A BW picture of a damaged TEM grid was taken by SEM and colorized.

Entry 37

“Yellowstone in an ampule” Photo by Vlastimil Mazanek, Czech Republic A failed synthesis of a layered janus-like material SbSCl