Professor Georges A. Guiochon of the University of Tennessee Knoxville is supported by the Chemical Measurement and Imaging (CMI) Program in the Division of Chemistry and the Chemical and Biological Separations Program in the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems, Directorate for Engineering to conduct fundamental hydrodynamic, thermodynamics and kinetics of mass transfer research in preparative scale supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC). The work will mainly involve the separations of racemic mixtures. Competitive equilibrium isotherms and mass transfer resistances in the separations studied will be determined and used to predict the optimum design and experimental conditions for the preparation of large, highly pure amounts of selected enantiomers. The results are applicable to other types of compounds as well. The conclusions reached will be tested with numerical comparison of the calculated and experimental chromatograms. The proposed research lays the fundamentals for practical applications of SFC in preparative-scale production of highly pure chiral pharmaceuticals and advances SFC as a viable substitute for HPLC. If successful the research will lead to important reductions in the cost of manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and it will have a positive impact on the environment as a result of the use of carbon dioxide as a viable alternative for toxic organic solvents. Graduate students and postdoctoral associates will be trained in sophisticated technical tasks and be prepared for academic and industrial careers. The project will contribute to chemical sustainability through reduced consumption of organic solvents and energy.
