Toward Homogeneous Carbon Media for Separation Science

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Prof. Susan Olesik and her group at Ohio State University are supported by the Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program to study a newly discovered means of producing carbon media that can increase by at least two orders of magnitude the number of components separated per unit distance in a separation device. Their approach includes development of molecularly-imprinted carbon and entails thorough study of how and why these media have such high performance characteristics, with an aim of providing even greater improvements in compound separations. Highly selective adsorptive carbon surfaces should have broad-reaching applications, such as pollution remediation and disease detection. The carbon adsorbents under study also have potential relevance in addressing many of the world's most challenging problems - for example, large-scale selective adsorption of CO2 from the atmosphere and highly selective separations of DNA fragments for disease detection and drug development. Undergraduate students in instrumental analysis will be involved in aspects of these studies through an extension of the REEL program (Research Experience to Enhance Education). Through discussions about the properties of the unique carbon materials, students will make decisions about how this new technology can be used in their class projects.