NSMDS: Molecular Design, Synthesis and Characterization of Green Glycolipid Surfactants

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With this award, the NSF Division of Chemistry and the Environmental Protection Agency, through a program of Networks for Sustainable Molecular Design and Synthesis, support Professors Jeanne Pemberton, Walter Klimecki, Raina Maier, Robin Polt, and Steven Schwartz in establishing the Network for Bio-inspired Surfactants (NeBiS) at the University of Arizona. This network combines the scientific expertise of four chemists, an environmental microbiologist, and a toxicologist to systematically design, synthesize, and characterize a wide array of new glycolipid surfactants. The recent discovery of a versatile, green synthesis of glycolipids is being leveraged to explore the synthesis of target glycolipids identified by computational methods to possess excellent surfactant properties in solution and at surfaces. The synthetic strategy involves univariate green metrics as quantitative benchmarks for assessment of improvements, including the use of renewable reagents from natural resources. Solution aggregation behavior of surfactants is characterized with a comprehensive suite of techniques to determine critical micelle concentration and aggregate shape and size, in part in collaboration with the National Center for Neutron Research at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST). The biodegradability of surfactants is determined, and the toxicity screening of potential candidates is carried out by a variety of chemical and biological assays. Attractive targets are screened in an in vitro model of ocular irritation. This effort will provide new insight into surfactant structure-function relationships and drive advances in molecular design. Surfactants are compounds that lower the surface tension of a liquid, the interfacial tension between two liquids or the interfacial tensions between a liquid and a solid. Surfactants may act as detergents, wetting agents, emulsifiers, foaming agents and dispersants. These critical, ubiquitous chemicals are present in many consumer products and industrial processes, with a multi-billion-dollar market. The toxicity of many conventional synthetic surfactants as well as their persistence in the environment are driving regulatory and consumer pressure to develop greener and more sustainable alternatives.. The ubiquity of surfactants coupled with emerging concerns about their long-term environmental impacts, present a compelling opportunity for advances in molecular design and synthesis of green surfactants, particularly ones based upon renewable materials. While tackling this problem, the Network for Bio-inspired Surfactants is developing significant education and outreach activities. This multidisciplinary effort is a platform for the cross-disciplinary training of a broad spectrum of researchers, from postdoctoral researchers through high school students. Graduate students are co-mentored whenever feasible and are required to include a cross-disciplinary component in their research. Several graduate students participate in semester-long internships with collaborators at NIST. In addition to engaging high school teachers and students in research, new curricular materials focused on green chemistry are being developed with content targeted to undergraduate and high school levels. Outreach activities target K-12 students through the local Science Center, and the local community is engaged more broadly to learn about surfactants and green chemistry through the participation of the investigators in Science Cafés.