Scale-up of solvent-free synthesis

传统上认为溶剂对于大多数化学反应以可接受的速率和受控的方式进行是必不可少的。它们相应地在化学过程中无处不在，但同时产生大量废物，消耗化石资源，并需要大量能源来生产，净化和回收。在可预见的未来，寻找更清洁、更可持续的化学品和材料生产方式是全球的一个优先目标。因此，创新思维，提出不需要溶剂的新型工艺，并且可以扩大到工业生产水平，现在至关重要。“机械化学”是一种简单地通过将固体研磨在一起来诱导化学反应的方法，它现在作为传统溶剂密集型方法的替代方法而引起人们的注意。最近出现的是，通过使用令人惊讶的简单、节能的研磨设备如米尔斯，固体之间的许多反应实际上可以进行，至少在小规模上，通常在几分钟内并且不需要任何添加的溶剂。然而，现在的一个关键问题是如何将这种机械化学合成扩大到工业上适用的水平。该项目旨在通过使这种化学能够在更大规模上进行，从而使其更适用于工业实施，从而在这一领域提供一个台阶式的变化。该项目是高度跨学科的，汇集了化学，化学工程，机械工程和制药加工方面的专家。该项目的结构是为了：1）获得更多的知识和了解如何这样的化学工作，从而如何优化它，以及2）探索它如何可以用来提供新类型的化学反应和化学和过程。最近成立的一家大学衍生公司将成为最大限度地发挥这项研究的商业影响的工具。

Solvents are traditionally assumed to be essential for most chemical reactions to proceed at an acceptable rate and in a controlled way. They are correspondingly ubiquitous in chemical processes, but simultaneously generate enormous amounts of waste, deplete fossil resources and require large amounts of energy to produce, purify and recycle. Finding cleaner and more sustainable ways of manufacturing chemicals and materials is a priority goal globally for the foreseeable future. Therefore, innovative thinking to come up with new types of processes which do not need solvents, and which can be scaled up to industrial production levels, is now critically important. 'Mechanochemistry' is a way of inducing chemical reactions simply by grinding solids together, and it is now attracting attention as an alternative general approach to traditional solvent-intensive methods. It has recently emerged that by using surprisingly simple, energy-efficient grinding apparatus such as ball mills, many reactions between solids can actually be performed, at least on small scales, oftenwithin a few minutes and without any added solvent. However, a critical issue now is how to scale-up this mechanochemical synthesis to industrially-applicable levels. This project aims to provide a step-change in this area by enabling such chemistry to be done on larger scales so making it more applicable to industrial implementation. This project is highly interdisciplinary, bringing together experts in chemistry, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering and pharmaceutical processing. The project is structured in order to: 1) gain greater knowledge and understanding of how such chemistry works and thus how to optimise it, and 2) explore how it can be used to provide new types of chemical reactions and chemistry and processes. A recently-formed university spin-out company will act a vehicle to maximise the commercial impact of this research.