I-Corps: Safe and convenient chemical purification system.

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种自动化系统并将其商业化，该系统可以安全地为实验室环境中的研究人员提供高度纯化的化学试剂。传统的纯化方法，如层析和蒸馏，耗费时间，需要有经验的人员，由于化学物质暴露而带来危险，并可能导致实验室事故，可能导致人员受伤甚至死亡。该奖项支持的化学净化系统消除了这些问题；它简单、安全、快速和经济。这项技术通过将使用范围扩大到具有特殊存储要求的活性试剂，改进了现有的溶剂净化系统。在学术界、政府和企业研究环境中工作的研究人员将在降低成本、加快工作流程和提高安全性方面受益于这项技术。这个i-Corps项目描述了一种安全、快速、经济、独立和便携的创新化学净化系统。该装置是一个独立的冷藏净化系统，由专门设计的不锈钢填充柱串联而成，储罐装有惰性气体净化前驱体。化学净化系统的创新设计使研究人员能够通过简单的柱清洗过程去除杂质、空气和水分，从而按照严格的标准净化化学品，同时限制接触有害化学品并保护敏感化学品的保质期。在过去的两年里，最初的原型已经用于生产用于阴离子聚合技术的纯化单体；所得到的聚合物具有低的多分散指数和目标相对分子质量，从而确认了单体的纯度。该项目的商业化将通过开发更一体化和紧凑的设计、将应用空间扩大到更广泛的化学品并增加各种自动化功能来改进该设备，从而提高操作的简易性。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development and commercialization of an automated system that safely provides highly purified chemical reagents for researchers in laboratory settings. Traditional purification methods such as chromatography and distillation consume time, require experienced personnel, introduce hazards due to chemical exposure and can cause lab accidents that may result in injuries or even fatalities. The chemical purification system supported by this award eliminates these issues; it is simple, safe, fast and economical. The technology improves upon already available solvent purification systems by extending the use to reactive reagents with special storage requirements. Research personnel working in academia, government and corporate research environments will benefit from this technology in terms of reduced costs, accelerated workflows, and increased safety.This I-Corps project describes an innovative chemical purification system that is safe, fast, economical, standalone and portable. The unit is a self-contained refrigerated purification system comprised of specially designed stainless steel packed columns in series with a reservoir tank holding inert-gas-purged precursor. The innovative design of the chemical purification system enables research personnel to purify chemicals to exacting standards by removing impurities, air and moisture via a simple column cleaning process while limiting exposure to harmful chemicals and preserving the shelf-life of sensitive chemicals. Initial prototypes have been used over the past two years to produce purified monomers for use with the anionic polymerization technique; the resultant polymers have low polydispersity indices and on-target molecular weights, confirming the monomer purity. Commercialization of this project will improve the device by developing a more integrated and compact design, broadening the application space to a wider variety of chemicals and adding various automation features for improved ease of operation.