I-Corps: Safe and convenient chemical purification system.

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发和商业化一个自动化系统，在实验室环境中为研究人员安全地提供高度纯化的化学试剂。传统的纯化方法，如色谱法和蒸馏法，耗时长，需要经验丰富的人员，由于化学品暴露而引入危险，并可能导致实验室事故，可能导致受伤甚至死亡。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。该技术通过将用途扩展到具有特殊储存要求的反应性试剂来改进现有的溶剂纯化系统。在学术界、政府和企业研究环境中工作的研究人员将从这项技术中受益，降低成本，加快工作流程，提高安全性。这个I-Corps项目描述了一种创新的化学净化系统，它安全、快速、经济、独立和便携。该装置是一个独立的制冷净化系统，由专门设计的不锈钢填充柱和一个储存惰性气体净化前体的储罐串联组成。化学品纯化系统的创新设计使研究人员能够通过简单的色谱柱清洁过程去除杂质、空气和水分，同时限制接触有害化学品并保持敏感化学品的保质期，从而将化学品纯化至严格的标准。在过去的两年中，已使用初始原型来生产用于阴离子聚合技术的纯化单体;所得聚合物具有低多分散性指数和目标分子量，证实了单体纯度。该项目的商业化将通过开发更集成和紧凑的设计来改进设备，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以提高操作的便利性。

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.