Porous Liquids and Mechanochemical Synthesis - from Curiosity to Company

Porous Liquids: Permanent porosity is normally only associated with solid materials. Recently we have shown that through careful molecular design permanent empty cavities can also exist in liquids. Moreover, such porous liquids, or ‘liquids zeolites’, show remarkable properties such as dissolution of large amounts of gases, and fast gas diffusion within them.

N. O’Reilly, N. Giri and S.L James, Chem. Eur. J. 2007, 13, 3020.

N. Giri et al. Nature, in press.

Mechanochemical Synthesis: Simply grinding together solids can promote quantitative reactions in the absence or near absence of solvent and can therefore potentially be used for more sustainable manufacturing. This ‘mechanochemical’ synthesis is remarkably versatile, being effective for both inorganic and organic reactions. Here, fundamental studies to better understand such chemistry at the molecular level, as well as innovative continuous processes which enable its scale-up and commercialisation will be described.

S.L. James  et al. Chem. Soc., Rev. 2012, 41, 413.

D. Crawford et al. Chem. Sci. 2015, 6, 1645.

Spin out company: www.moftechnologies.com

Link to webpage of speaker: http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofChemistryandChemicalEngineering/Staff/AcademicStaff/ProfessorStuartLJames/