The use of water as a reaction solvent has the potential to impact the sustainable, continuous flow manufacturing of specialty chemicals. Successfully engineering such processes require the ability to overcome some challenges, including 1) management of the formation of solids as non-covalently bonded materials on reactor surfaces (e.g., scale deposition), 2) design of efficient catalysts using understanding of the fundamental mechanisms that govern synthetic transformations, 3) innovation of novel reactors that efficiently couple the aromatics that make-up intermediates in fine chemical production, and 4) integration of analytics with laboratory synthesis tools for online reaction discovery and optimization. This research will address each of these four challenges. The PIs plan the engineering and integration of microreactors with confocal Raman microscopy, where the intrinsic kinetic and mechanistic knowledge of palladium-catalyzed C-H functionalization reactions with hydrophilic ligands will be made available in the absence of transport limitations. The use of hydrophilic ligands, and hence water as a reaction solvent, in fine chemical manufacturing presents the opportunity for greener pathways to useful compounds. The PIs will combine reactor design principles, analytical chemistry, and synthetic methodologies aimed at developing a platform, which can be used to continuously synthesize fine chemical intermediates with water as a reaction solvent. The enabling technology will combine concepts of (i) microreactor technology, (ii) the design of hydrophilic ligands for synthetic organic reactions, (iii) non-invasive analytical techniques for reaction monitoring, and (iv) multi-step microchemical synthesis involving reactions and separations. If successful, the knowledge generated will foster a new paradigm of sustainable chemical process design: the use of water as a solvent to manufacture fine chemicals.
Broader Impacts
This research seeks to establish fundamental understanding of reactor and process design of synthetic pathways that utilize water as a solvent. This understanding will advance chemical processes that synthesize specialty chemicals, in a sustainable way. Undergraduate and graduate students will benefit from this work through the evolution of the reaction engineering curricula and undergraduate research opportunities for underrepresented groups. Furthermore, students K-12+ will be engaged by the creation of online YouTube videos through an undergraduate competition between the University of Southern California and the University of Alabama aimed at the interfacing of advanced chemistry and reactor design concepts, real world engineering problems, and pop culture. The work will also expose graduate students to international research experiences through collaboration with the Institute of Condensed Matter Chemistry Bordeaux (ICMCB). These educational components will strengthen the undergraduate engineering education at the University of Alabama, foster early interest in engineering careers from K-12 students, and provide unique opportunities for graduate students to gain international exposure.
