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Seminars
Towards the Rational Design of Porous Solids
Dr. Daniel F. Shantz
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas
When: Thursday, September 13, 2007
Time: 2:30PM - 3:30PM
Where: 1070 Duncan Hall
Abstract:
Porous inorganic solids are ubiquitous in heterogeneous catalysis, adsorption/separations, and ion-exchange processes. Moreover, these materials show promise for new applications such as low k dielectric materials, membranes, and the like. Despite their current importance and future promise, the design of such materials is in many ways still highly empirical. The research seminar presented will highlight two current topics in my laboratory where we are attempting to move to rational design approaches for making porous solids.
In the first part of the talk I will summarize our work on dendrimer-ordered mesoporous silica (OMS) nanocomposites. I will show how it is possible to rationally tune material properties such as pore size, pore volume, and surface chemistry in a deliberate manner through organic chemistry. I will also describe the implications of such material design in the context of membranes for selective separations and organocatalysis.
In the second part of the talk I will summarize our work on zeolite nucleation and growth. I will focus on the growth of silicalite-1 from clear solutions at low temperatures. While much literature has been devoted to a very specific set of synthesis mixtures that rapidly form silicalite-1, here I will present results showing that in fact this system is extremely sensitive to many parameters that have not been previously described in the literature. The implications of this work both for developing a general description of zeolite nucleation and for next generation application of zeolites will be discussed.
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