University of Illinois

Dioxide Materials, Inc.

Zheng Richard Ni

Richard I Masel

Qingmei Chen

Brian A Rosen

Mark A Shannon

A process for the production of organic acids having at least three carbon atoms comprises the steps of forming an amount of carbon monoxide and reacting the amount of carbon monoxide with an amount of an unsaturated hydrocarbon. The reaction is preferably carried out in the presence of a supported palladium catalyst, a strong acid, and a phosphine. In some embodiments, the unsaturated hydrocarbon is one of acetylene and methylacetylene, and the organic acid is one of acrylic acid and methyl acrylic acid. The reacting step is preferably performed with carbon monoxide produced from carbon dioxide.

Process for the sustainable production of acrylic acid

An environmentally beneficial process for the production of fuels and chemicals employs carbon dioxide from a natural source or from an artificial chemical source that would otherwise be discharged into the environment. The carbon dioxide is converted to formic acid and the formic acid is then non-biologically converted to fuels and/or chemicals without the intermediate process of hydrogenating the formic acid to methanol or reacting the formic acid with ammonia to form formamide. In the present process, formic acid is converted to one of seven primary feedstocks: formaldehyde, acrylic acid, methane, ethylene, propylene, syngas, and C5-C7 carbohydrates. The formaldehyde, acrylic acid, methane, ethylene, propylene, syngas and/or short chain carbohydrates can either be used directly, or can be converted into a wealth of other products.

Hydrogenation of formic acid to formaldehyde

Microwave assisted synthesis may be used to produce water-repellent metallic organic frameworks (MOFs) molecules. The water-repellent MOFs contain non-polar functional groups, such as a trifluoromethoxy group, which has a strong water repellent effect. The water-repellent MOF, when exposed to water vapor for one week does not result in a significant X-ray power pattern change. The water-repellent MOFs may be suitable as an adsorbent in many industrial applications, such as gas chromatography.

Water repellent metal-organic frameworks, process for making and uses regarding same

Novel metal organic framework (MOF) molecules and methods of synthesizing them are described. MOFs are organometallic crystalline structures that have high sorption capacity due to high surface area, tailorable selectivity, an inert nature, and thermal stability at high temperatures. MOFs may be used as sorbents in preconcentrators for analytical devices to provide orders of magnitude of improved sensitivity in analyte detection. MOFs are also useful as sorbents in new compact and portable micropreconcentrator designs such as a modified purge and trap system and a multi-valve microelectromechanical system (MEMS) to achieve high gain in analyte detection. Further, MOFs may be used as coatings for novel microstructure arrays in micropreconcentrators where the microstructures are designed to increase the surface area to volume ratio inside the micropreconcentrator while minimizing the pressure drop across the micropreconcentrator.

High gain selective metal organic framework preconcentrators

A rapid, simple and versatile metal organic framework molecule (MOF) synthesis method particularly adapted to make non-linear MOFs includes heating MOF precursors, such as a metal or metal oxide and an organic ligand, in a microwave oven for a period sufficient to achieve crystallization. Microwave-assisted MOF synthesis yields high quality MOF crystals in a reaction time ranging from about 5 seconds to about 2.5 minutes, compared to hours and days required in conventional solvothermal and hydrothermal methods. In addition, microwave assisted methods provide MOF materials with uniform crystal size and well-defined shape. Further, microwave synthesis of MOFs allows the size and shape of MOF crystals to be tailored for use in a wide range applications by manipulating reaction conditions. Secondary growth processes may also be employed to grow larger crystals using seeds obtained from microwave-assisted synthesis methods.

Growing community of inventors

Champaign, IL, United States of America

Zheng Richard Ni