Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

This proposal concerns the acquisition of an inert atmosphere workstation, or glove box. A glove box workstation allows for the preparation, storage and analysis of very reactive chemicals under safe conditions. For example, some of the chemicals made by the group, or their starting materials, will spontaneously catch fire upon exposure to air outside of the inert nitrogen atmosphere within the glove box.  The compounds made by students and researchers in my group will be used as initiators or catalysts for making new polymeric materials (plastics) from renewable starting materials (feedstocks). Most modern plastics are made from petrochemical sources, which are quickly becoming depleted or prohibitively expensive. Our research seeks ways to improve our use of these resources in a more energy efficient and higher yielding manner. We are also using alternative starting materials that can be obtained cheaply from renewable sources, such as plants, or from waste products, such as carbon dioxide (CO2). In short, can we make new plastics from chemicals obtained from plants, as well as use at least some of the CO2 that is accumulating in our atmosphere?  The problem with many of these starting materials, especially CO2, is that they are very unreactive and require forcing conditions (such as long reaction times, very high temperatures or pressures) in order for us to do chemistry with them. The use of metal-containing catalysts is one way to make the processes using these feedstocks more rapid and energy efficient. Since these catalysts must be very reactive, they must be handled under special conditions free from oxygen and water, which could destroy the catalyst.  A glove box is an essential piece of equipment in catalyst development laboratories worldwide. In discovering new catalysts, chemists can meet society's continuing desire for a high quality of life whilst enabling a sustainable future via new lower energy processes and alternative feedstocks. This research is also of importance in exploiting Canada's finite petrochemical resources in energy efficient and controlled ways.