Separation and Purification of Fatty Acid Esters Derived from Vegetable Oil

植物油是从玉米、大豆和向日葵等大规模作物中提取的数千万吨植物油。这些油由于其相对于石油衍生的化学品的低成本、生物可再生性和环境安全性而在化学工业中是有价值的资源。植物油也用于许多消费品应用，包括护手霜，机油等。尽管它们是可取的，但植物油是复杂的混合物，使它们在应用中具有挑战性。目前，这些油混合物的组分不能以合理的成本有效地分离。基于膜的分离是实现所需分离的有前景且潜在成本有效的方法。该研究项目旨在设计基于共价有机框架的膜，以将植物油混合物分离成高纯度组分。此外，这项研究将产生基本的见解，使用共价有机框架分离类似大小和形状的有机化学品。该项目将积极参与研究生，本科生和高中生，为他们提供一个机会，以获得知识和实践经验，在膜分离。此外，研究者还将参加爱荷华州博览会和爱荷华州STEM博览会，通过互动科学实验与各个年龄段的儿童互动。本项目旨在开发能够将脂肪酸和脂肪酸酯分离成高纯度单个组分流的共价有机框架膜，并了解共价有机框架的结构与其有效性的关系。为了实现这些目标，将合成二维和三维共价有机框架，并将研究负责脂肪酸和脂肪酸酯分离的机制。将内孔功能化，以系统地探索孔径和极性对分离性能的影响。将研究混合基质和薄膜共价有机框架膜的组合。最佳性能的膜将被应用于分离玉米油衍生的脂肪酸和脂肪酸酯。该研究有望表明共价有机骨架膜可以分离分子量和尺寸几乎相同且具有高度流动结构的有机化合物。因此，这些膜可以应用于广泛的有机化学分离，没有其他低成本的方法。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Vegetable oils are derived in the tens of millions of tons from large-scale crops like corn, soybean, and sunflowers. These oils are valuable resources in the chemical industry due to their low cost, bio-renewability, and environmental safety relative to petroleum-derived chemicals. Vegetable oils are also used in many consumer product applications, including hand lotion, engine oil, and more. Despite their desirability, vegetable oils are complex mixtures, making them challenging to use in applications. Currently, the components of these oil mixtures cannot be separated efficiently at a reasonable cost. Membrane-based separations are a promising and potentially cost-effective approach to achieve the desired separation. This research project aims to design membranes based on covalent organic frameworks to separate vegetable oil mixtures into high-purity components. Additionally, the research will yield fundamental insights into the separation of similarly sized and shaped organic chemicals using covalent organic frameworks. The project will actively involve graduate, undergraduate, and high school students, offering them an opportunity to gain knowledge and hands-on experience in membrane-based separations. Moreover, the investigator will participate in the Iowa State Fair and Iowa STEM fairs, engaging with children of all ages through interactive science experiments.This project aims to develop covalent organic framework membranes that can separate fatty acids and fatty acid esters into streams of high-purity individual components and to understand how the structure of covalent organic frameworks relates to their effectiveness. To accomplish these goals, two- and three-dimension covalent organic frameworks will be synthesized, and the mechanisms responsible for fatty acids and fatty acid esters separations will be investigated. The inner pores will be functionalized to systematically explore the effects of pore size and polarity on separation performance. A combination of mixed-matrix and thin-film covalent organic framework membranes will be investigated. The best-performing membrane will be applied to separate corn oil-derived fatty acids and fatty acid esters. This research is expected to show that covalent organic framework membranes can separate organic chemicals with nearly identical molecular weights and sizes and with highly fluxional structures. As such, these membranes can be applied in a wide range of organic chemical separations for which no other low-cost methods are available.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.