9224102 Pinnavaia This group award is made in the Advanced Materials and Processing Program in support of the collaborative research of Professors Pannavaia, Kanatzidis, Golding, Mahanti and Thorpe at Michigan State University. Support is provided by the Chemistry Division. One major theme of the research is access in nanoporous layered materials. Specific elements of the research will be control of pore size, structural modification of the layers by pillaring intercalants, and a study of structural and dynamical factors which govern access in micro- and mesoporous systems. A full complement of synthetic, characterization and theoretical approaches will be employed. Typical systems which will be studied are smectite clays, layered double hydroxides and nanoporous metal chalcogenides. A second major theme is the design, synthesis and characterization of layered silicate and silicic acid heterostructures. Layered silicates will be synthesized in which two ions of different solvation energies are segregated into regularly alternating galleries by spontaneous self-assembly. These ordered heterostructures containing hydrophobic alkyl onium ions and hydrophilic inorganic cations will be well suited for acid catalysis and guest-host chemistry. Another class of materials which will be synthesized and characterized are layered silicic acid derivatives formed by templated intragallery hydrolysis-condensation reactions of chiral silicates in the presence of liquid amines. The nature of the amine will determine the pore structure and size. These chiral materials will be suitable as catalysts for asymmetric synthesis and for separation of optical isomers. %%% Nanoporous layered materials are of high technological interest in catalysis and separations and are potentially important in electronic, optical and structural applications. ***
