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Biorefinery - A Sustainable Molecular Design Platform for Soft Materials
(Seminar/Conference)
George John
Department of Chemistry, The City College of the City University of New York
In future research, developing materials, fuels and energy devices from renewable resources would be fascinating yet demanding practice, which will have a direct impact on industrial applications, and economically viable alternatives. This talk presents a novel and emerging concept of generating new chemicals, intermediates and products in a 'Biorefinery'. Our continuous efforts in this area led us to develop new glycolipids from industrial byproducts such as cashew-nut-shell-liquid, which upon self-assembly produced nanoarchitectures including lipid nanotubes, twisted/helical nanofibers, low-molecular-weight gels and liquid crystals. More recently, we have developed multiple systems based on biobased organic synthesis by chemical/biocatalytic methods for functional applications. We used the 'chiral pool' of carbohydrates using the selectivity of enzyme catalysis yield amphiphilic products from biobased feedstock including amygdalin, trehalose and vitamin-C. Amygdalin amphiphiles showed unique gelation behaviour in a broad range of solvents such as non-polar hexanes to polar aqueous solutions. Importantly, an enzyme-triggered drug-delivery model for hydrophobic drugs was demonstrated by using these supramolecularly assembled hydrogels. Intriguingly, by combining biocatalysis, with principles of green and supramolecular chemistry, we developed building blocks-to-assembled materials. These results will lead to efficient molecular design of supramolecular architectures and soft materials from underutilized plant/crop-based renewable feedstock.
Part of the Renewable Materials Frontiers in Bioscience Speaker Series
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540-231-1929