SBIR Phase II: Zirconia for Ultrafast Analytical Chromagraphy

这个小型企业创新研究二期项目将生产无孔氧化锆微球，作为高效液相色谱（HPLC）的支持，可以彻底改变各种分析，包括环境污染物和药物物质。目前最先进的高效液相色谱支持限制分析样品的速度和分辨率。它们还需要大量的溶剂，因为它们是多孔的，不能忍受高温。用化学气相沉积法（CVD）涂覆碳的无孔氧化锆将克服这些问题。我们将用烷氧锆合成这些氧化锆微球。主要目标是提供商业质量的无孔单分散球形氧化锆颗粒，具有足够的重现性和稳定性，以生产超快速色谱柱。这项颗粒合成工作也将为其他行业（如陶瓷合成、催化）带来好处。在第二阶段，无孔碳涂层氧化锆柱将用于样品的快速分离，包括除草剂，杀虫剂，硝基芳烃，氯代苯酚和常见的羧酸类药物，如水杨酸，布洛芬和对乙酰氨基酚，柱温高达2000℃。使用这些柱应该有双重好处；它将使分析速度至少提高一个数量级，并将显著减少所需的有机溶剂的数量。这项研究的主要商业应用将是使用超快无孔碳包覆氧化锆在高达200摄氏度的柱温下进行反相分离，减少对环境有影响的物质的有机溶剂使用。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will produce nonporous zirconia microspheres to act as high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) supports that can revolutionize a wide variety of analyses including environmental pollutants and pharmaceutical substances. Current state-of-the-art HPLC supports limit the speed and resolution in analyzing samples. They further require a great deal of solvent because they are porous and they can not tolerate high temperature. Nonporous zirconia, coated by Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) with carbon, will overcome these problems. We will synthesize these zirconia microspheres using zirconium alkoxides. The chief goal is to provide commercial quality nonporous monodisperse spherical zirconia particles with sufficient reproducibility and stability to produce ultrafast chromatography columns. This particle synthesis work will produce benefits for other industries as well (e.g., ceramic synthesis, catalysis). During Phase II nonporous carbon coated zirconia columns will be used for the fast separation of samples including herbicides, insecticides, nitroaromatics, chloronated phenols, and common carboxylate drugs such as salicylic acid, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen at column temperatures up to 2000 degrees C. The use of these columns should have a twofold benefit; it will speed analysis by at least an order of magnitude, and it will significantly reduce the amount of organic solvent needed. The primary commercial application of this research will be the reduction of organic solvent use in reversed-phase separation of environmentally impactive substancesby using ultrafast nonporous carbon clad zirconia at column temperatures as highas 200 degrees Celcius.