(681g) SBA-15 - Polymer Hybrid Materials for Selective Capture From Model Cellulose Hydrolysis Mixtures

The synthesis of SBA-15 / hybrid materials and their use for capturing target compounds from aqueous mixtures will be summarized.  The organic groups attached to SBA-15 are made via ATRP chemistry and subsequent side chain functionalization of the polymer brush formed.  These materials have been characterized using methods including spectroscopy, porosimetry, and microscopy.  These well-defined hybrids possess a high density of functional groups that can be used to selectively capture compounds from solution.  The majority of the talk will focus on our efforts investigating materials with pendant phenyl boronic acid groups which can be used to selectively capture sugars from aqueous media.  Uptake data and equilibrium adsorption properties of both single component sugar/water mixtures as well as multicomponent mixtures will be reported.  The current work demonstrates that it is possible to utilize ATRP chemistry on high surface area supports to make hybrid materials that can be tailored to selectively capture compounds from solution.  These materials represent one route to achieve separations of complex mixtures produced by, for instance, biomass hydrolysis in aqueous solutions.