I-Corps: Commercialization of a Phase-Selective Gelator for Oil Remediation

该项目的目标是进一步将糖基分子凝胶剂开发成用于溢油回收和修复的增稠剂。生物催化衍生的低相对分子质量相选择凝胶剂在先进材料研究中具有重要意义。作为环境持久性聚合物凝胶体系的替代品，低分子质量凝胶剂是一种新型的功能智能材料，由于容易断裂的非共价力而组装。将重点放在这些相对未被探索的高度可调的体系上，有助于加深对固体/液体凝胶体系、材料中非共价力的用途和特征以及绿色合成方法的深入理解。相选择性凝胶剂是低分子质量凝胶剂的一个亚类，由于其溶解性和物理封闭性，能够选择性地固化两种不相容的液体相中的一种。这些凝胶剂中的大多数都是偶然发现的，但需要继续努力合理地设计系统，以阐明结构-组装/活性关系，并允许系统地制定和理解这些分子。利用可再生资源合成的低分子质量凝胶剂在化学、工程和材料科学中架起了许多子学科的桥梁，包括可持续设计和绿色化学。相选择凝胶剂(PSG)作为石油增稠剂有着广泛的应用。PSG被开发为生物兼容材料，用于回收近海漏油中的溢油，概念上允许回收石油，而目前使用的分散剂将异物溶解到海洋环境中。由于凝胶化是一个物理过程，不需要对凝胶剂或油进行化学改变，PSG可以回收和重复使用。除了回收溢油外，石油增稠剂还可用于个人护理和食品工业，用于运输液体，或为食品提供理想的质地或一致性。由于PSG可以很容易地通过低能量生物催化手段从可再生资源中合成，它们代表了一类功能和可持续增值的智能材料。通过开发环境友好的产品供广泛使用，研究人员可以降低对合成化学品的依赖，同时减轻合成系统对环境的影响。

The objective of this project is to further develop a sugar-based molecular gelator into an oil-thickening agent for spill recovery and remediation. Biocatalytically derived low molecular weight phase selective gelators are important in advanced materials research. An alternative to environmentally persistent polymeric gel systems, low molecular weight gelators are a new class of functional smart materials, which assemble due to easily broken non-covalent forces. Focusing efforts on these relatively unexplored highly tunable systems have helped to develop a strong understanding of solid/liquid gel systems, the utility and character of non-covalent forces in materials, and green synthetic methods. Phase selective gelators, a subgenre of low molecular weight gelators, are capable of selectively solidifying one of two immiscible liquid phases due to solubility properties and physical occlusion. Most of these gelators have been discovered serendipitously but continued attempts to rationally design systems are needed to elucidate the structure-assembly/activity relationships and allow for the systematic formulation and understanding of these molecules. Low molecular weight gelators synthesized from renewable resources bridge many sub disciplines in chemistry, engineering, and materials science including sustainable design and green chemistry. Phase Selective Gelators (PSGs) have a wide variety of applications as oil thickeners. Developed as biocompatible materials to recover spilled oil in offshore oil spills, PSGs conceptually allow for the oil's recovery while currently used dispersants solubilize the foreign matter into the marine environments. As gelation is a physical process, without chemically altering the gelator or oil, the PSG may be recycled and reused. In addition to oil spill recovery, oil thickeners may be used in personal care, and food industry to transport liquids, or to provide desirable texture or consistency in food. As PSGs can be easily synthesized through low energy biocatalytic means from renewable resources they represent a class of functional and sustainable value-added smart materials. By developing environmentally benign products for widespread use researchers can lower the dependence on synthetic chemicals while mitigating the effects of synthetic systems in the environment.