(495b) Mesoporous Molecular Sieves: A Twenty Year Retrospective

A novel class of self-assembled mesoporous molecular sieves, known as the MCM-41 or M41S family was first disclosed in 1992 in two articles in the journals Nature and the Journal of the American Chemical Society.  In the intervening 20 years, these two publications have been cited a remarkable 13,500 times.  This presentation traces the discovery, development, and eventual commercialization of one member of the M41S class of materials.  Today, research continues on broadening the application of two-dimensional  MCM-41, three-dimensional  MCM-48, and lamellar MCM-50 in a number of catalytic and adsorptive processes.  The history of M41S attests to the challenges faced even in developing materials that are considered scientific breakthroughs.  Established catalysts and sorbents that have been refined for specific applications are formidable competitors to new materials that face an often costly and technically challenging path to commercialization, despite intrinsic benefits of the newer materials.  True step-out developments tend to follow the observation of renowned economist, Edwin Mansfield that technology breakthroughs generally require a decade to move from discovery to initial commercial demonstration.