(731e) High Throughput Synthesis and Screening for Discovery of Improved Sorbent Materials for Gas Separations

Title: High Throughput Synthesis and Screening for Discovery of Improved Sorbent Materials for Gas Separations

Authors: Justin Dutton, Steven Kaye*

Wildcat Discovery Technologies Inc.

The separation of industrial gases via adsorption processes is often a key component of the cost and energy required for their manufacture. For example, 24% of the energy required to produce ethylene is used to separate it from other alkenes and alkanes. As such, the development of more efficient and selective adsorbents is of paramount importance. Research is often slowed by the large number of potential sorbents and the need to simultaneously optimize multiple performance metrics (e.g. working capacity, kinetics, impurity tolerance, etc.).

Wildcat Discovery Technologies has developed a modular, scalable platform for the high throughput synthesis and screening of sorbent materials that enables evaluation of >1000 samples per week. Central to this platform is our parallel gas sorption assay. Using an integrated mass spectrometer, this instrument is capable of rapidly evaluating materials for pressure and temperature swing adsorption by measuring a wide variety of gas sorption properties, including gas uptake, rate of sorption, and isotherms at variable temperatures using either pure gases or mixtures. Coupled with Wildcat’s high throughput synthesis platform, this allows parallel evaluation of virtually any sorbent under realistic conditions for a target application.

In this talk, I will discuss the development and validation of Wildcat’s high throughput sorbent discovery platform as well as our initial results from our discovery efforts.