CCI Phase I: NSF Center for Integrated Catalysis (CIC)

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The NSF Center for Integrated Catalysis (CIC) is supported by the Centers for Chemical Innovation (CCI) Program of the Division of Chemistry. This Phase I Center is led by Paula Diaconescu of the University of California, Los Angeles. Other team members include Jeffery Byers and Dunwei Wang of Boston College, Loi Do of the University of Houston, Chong Liu of the University of California, Los Angeles, and Alexander Miller of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. CIC will develop the fundamental chemistry needed to prepare synthetic plastics from pools of abundant feedstocks in a single reactor using spatially separated and temporally switchable catalysts. The inspiration for the work done in CIC comes from Nature’s remarkable ability as a chemist. Nature uses the architecture of cells to run chemical factories by combining different processes to construct structurally complex products. Synthetic chemists, in contrast, usually run each chemical reaction individually in a separate vessel, requiring product isolation after each step in the sequence. The goal of the CIC is to mimic biological systems in the development of synthetic chemical catalytic processes. Simple starting materials will be used to supply networks of multiple catalysts operating together on a single platform, with the aid of temporal and spatial control, to produce new polymeric materials. The Phase I Center focuses on using simple feedstocks such as amino acids, ethylene, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide. The investigators seek to develop a generally applicable platform that will help synthetic chemists to test new ideas that benefit from spatial control. The proximity of each participating campus to various industries, including pharmaceutical, commodity chemical, and plastic manufacturers, has the potential to facilitate the transfer of spatio-temporally controlled catalysis knowledge to the commercial enterprise. Monthly brown bag seminars, including sessions on business and entrepreneurship topics, are planned to help promote the career development of the students and postdoctoral scholars on the team. A strong mentoring program and existing links to local diverse populations help to ensure the recruitment and retention of underrepresented minorities in the CIC.The CIC approach will combine spatial and temporal control to enable catalytic processes that allow the construction of sequence-defined sustainable polymeric materials from simple building blocks. In order to achieve temporal control, switchable catalysts will be employed to control polymer composition. Switchable catalysts can be activated or deactivated as needed using external stimuli, such as light or electrochemical potential, enabling control over activity or selectivity; they can also be protected when another reaction is being carried out in the same vessel. In order to achieve spatial control, catalysts will be separated through micropatterning and/or controlling local chemical environments. Surface functionalization of precatalysts, along with the development of patterning down to the microscopic scale, will enable catalysis with new reactivity and improved product selectivity. Moreover, potential opto-electronic responses by the underlying materials (e.g., semiconductors) allow tunable reactivity of the active site with external optical or electrical triggers along with the presence of reactant gradients. CIC will combine aspects of spatial and temporal control to introduce a transformative approach to catalysis that converts pools of abundant feedstocks into novel materials of high complexity. For example, the synthesis of specific building blocks, from ethylene or amino acids and CO/CO2, will be coupled to their polymerization/copolymerization in order to obtain new, precisely patterned materials. Examples of projects include the direct synthesis of polypeptide-based materials from amino acids and CO2, the conversion of CO/CO2, ethylene, and ethylene glycol into sequence-controlled copolymers that are sustainable and degradable, and the conversion of CO2, ethylene, and alcohols directly to polyacrylate materials. The scientific impact of the CIC will be the introduction of a new paradigm in chemical catalysis, with applications across the catalysis community and in chemical industry. Students will be trained in interdisciplinary collaborative chemistry, benefiting from embedded research experiences at partner sites. Interactions with local communities, with a particular focus on reaching students from groups that are underrepresented in the sciences, will ensure further impact of the project.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.