SBIR Phase I: Economic and Solvent-Free Separation/ Purification of Fullerenes

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目将演示不使用溶剂的富勒烯（C60, C70）的经济分离/纯化。富勒烯是继石墨和金刚石之后的第三种碳，它开创了一个全新的碳领域，在电子、医药、材料和化学等各个领域都有潜在的应用。然而，高昂的成本（几倍于黄金的成本）和有限的纯和无溶剂富勒烯供应阻碍了持续的研究和大规模应用开发的步伐，这些富勒烯目前是通过液相色谱法分离的。富勒烯中的残留溶剂是杂质，通常会严重干扰感兴趣的应用。造成高成本的一个主要因素是分离/净化成本，主要是由于难以完全去除残留溶剂。该计划将展示一种连续的、能量集成的分离方法，该方法利用C60和c70的挥发性差异，并将流化床技术纳入分离中。该项目的成果将立即支持富勒烯研究，并推动开发低成本、纯和无溶剂富勒烯的商业制造工艺。这样的商业化过程将导致富勒烯在光学、高温超导、催化剂、聚合物、医药、金刚石合成以及许多其他不同应用领域的大规模应用。

95-61066 Pan This Small Business Innovative Research Phase I project will demonstrate the economic separation/purification of fullerenes (C60, C70) without the use of solvents. Fullerenes, the third form of carbon after graphite and diamond, have ushered in a completely new field of carbon with potential applications in diverse fields such as electronics, medicine, materials, and chemistry. The continued research as well as the pace of large-scale application development are hampered, however, by the high cost (several times the cost of gold) and limited supply of pure and solvent-free fullerenes which are currently separated by liquid chromatography. Residue solvents in the fullerenes are impurities that often significantly interfere with applications of interest. A major contributor to the high cost is the separation/purification cost primarily arising from the difficulty in completely removing the residue solvent. This program will demonstrate a continuous, energy integrated separation method that utilizes the difference in the volatility of C60 and C7O and incorporates a fluidized bed technique into the separation. The results of this program will immediately bolster fullerene research and advance the efforts to develop a commercial manufacturing process for low-cost, pure, and solvent-free fullerenes. Such a commercial process will lead to large scale applications of fullerenes in optics, high temperature superconductivity, catalyst, polymers, medicine, diamond synthesis, and a host of other diverse applications.