The Winning #CSD3DPrint Model!
If you’ve been following the CCDC on Twitter this year, you probably already know that we’ve been running our second annual #CSD3DPrint Twitter competition this summer and this contest officially ended on Thursday September the 22nd.
Competitors had to generate 3D models of their structures using Mercury, get the models 3D printed, photograph the end result and then post a photo on Twitter using the hashtag #CSD3DPrint.
https://twitter.com/hashtag/CSD3Dprint
The competition this year was even stronger than in 2015 with some excellent entries giving the judges quite a challenge to select the winner! Contributions included 3D printed models of propane clathrate hydrate, a chiral carbon nanotube, a metal-organic framework (MOF) and an unprecedented Fe36 phosphonate cage molecule.
Selected entries (clockwise from top left): propane clathrate hydrate by Helen Maynard-Casely (from CSD refcode NAHCOP
We are very pleased though to announce that the winner of the 2016 #CSD3DPrint competition is Dr Claire Murray who is a beamline scientist at Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire, UK. Claire’s 3D printed model is of a Pd12 closed, chiral cage molecule, the crystal structure of which was published in Inorganic Chemistry in 2013 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ic401253q).
The winner: a 3D printed model of Pd12 closed, chiral cage molecule (from CSD refcode MIRGEB) – model and photograph by Claire Murray (Diamond Light Source)
The 2016 competition judges selected this model as the winner due to a combination of the astonishing level of interest in this model from the community on Twitter (16 retweets and 47 likes) as well as the science displayed in the model appealing to the judges. As the winner of this year’s competition, Claire will receive a one-year subscription to Make magazine.
We wish you happy 3D printing for the rest of the year – there’s plenty of time now to start 3D printing some festive molecular models to hang on your Christmas tree. If you missed out on our competition this summer, feel free to start preparing for next year’s #CSD3DPrint competition!