David A. Bruce, Ph.D. -- Research Activities

Zeolitic and Mesoporous Material Development
Mesoporous materials are widely sought after for electronic, sensor, and chemical reaction applications. Modern methods for preparing these materials are not well understood; hence, our group is working to improve the methodology used to synthesize porous oxides by further elucidating the effects of structure directing agents on sol-gel self-assembly processes. Several semi-rigid organic oligomers are being used as structure directing agents in the synthesis of novel mesoporous materials. These oligomeric templates can adopt pseudo-planar, spherical, or helical geometries, and the exposed side chains of these templates can be varied via simple synthetic transformations. By analyzing the resultant crystalline oxide structures formed using these templates, it should be possible to develop a generalized synthesis model that can describe the essential molecular characteristics of a sol-gel template.

The specific molecular interactions affecting sieve formation are also being studied using molecular dynamics as well as quantum mechanical techniques. Our current research is focusing on the development of mesoporous materials that can be used as oxidation catalysts since oxidation processes have become critical reaction steps in the production of pharmaceuticals, aroma chemicals, food additives, polymer precursors, and insecticides. The use of heterogeneous catalysts is desired for these types of processes because they can be readily separated from the reaction products and recycled back through the process. The helical organic templates also offer the added possibility of producing chiral mesoporous materials, which are highly sought after catalysts and adsorbents. Our work in this area is also examining the effects of advanced sol-gel processing techniques, such as microwave heating, sc-CO2 template extraction, and ultrasonic mixing. The novel materials, molecular modeling, and advanced processing techniques developed in our labs could dramatically expand the number of highly selective mesoporous catalysts available for the production of specialty chemicals.

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