Silica mesocellular foam and carbon nanofoam for fine chemical synthesis and separation

In chromatography, the selective separation for large molecules, polymers, and proteins is of particular interest. To achieve quality separations, the stationary phase should exhibit pore diameters greater than 10 nm to facilitate the diffusion of large analytes throughout the stationary phase. In packed-bed applications, narrow particle and pore size distributions and uniform particle shape would lead to improved separations. Thus, spherical stationary phase particles are often preferred, but the challenge has been to combine spherical particle morphologies, high surface areas, large mesopores, and narrow pore size distributions. We have successfully created a new three-step synthesis of spherical MCF (S- MCF) particles utilizing sodium fluoride as a condensation catalyst. The approach allowed for independent control over S-MCF particle and pore size, and was extended to other non-ordered porous silicas. The S-MCF particles were engineered into a reverse- phase chromatographic column and achieved good separation ability for a mixture of aryl ketones. By relating chromatographic performance to S-MCF surface silanol chemistry, an improved S-MCF chromatographic support was realized, which rivaled the separation capability of a commercially available chromatographic support. The asymmetric Diels-Alder (ADA) reaction is very useful in building complex chiral molecules through the formation of chiral carbon ring structures, and it presents an excellent route for generating new therapeutic molecules. Although these compounds are of great importance, homogeneous ADA catalysts exhibit moderate activities and are not readily recovered and reused. This has prevented the ADA reaction from being widely practiced in the pharmaceutical industry.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Chemical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Lancaster, Thomas M. (Thomas Michael), 1977-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jackie Y. Ying.

• Chemical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/29373

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/29373