Chemical Synthesis

Adaptive Microbial Platform For Gut Health, Biofuel, And Soil Productivity

SUMMARY A novel biomaterial platform designed to enhance microbial modulation, featuring tunable chemical, mechanical, and optical responsiveness for applications in health, agriculture, and industry. The Unmet Need: Current clinically deployable materials for microbiome modulation lack dynamic responsiveness, efficient biofilm enhancement, and therapeutic utility for GI disease and sustainable agriculture Soil… Read More

Recoverable Non-Covalent Self-Assembling Catalysts for Hydrogen Peroxide Electrosynthesis

SUMMARY The invention centers on a scalable, sustainable, and selective method to electrochemically generate hydrogen peroxide under mild, neutral conditions. The Unmet Need: Method for producing hydrogen peroxide under mild conditions Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂)… Read More

New Reversible Uridine Modification Chemistry For Labeling and Functionalizing Native Nucleic Acids

SUMMARY A chemical process that enables reversible, covalent RNA modification-highly selective for uridine enabling diverse functional group attachment, facilitating nucleic acid labeling The Unmet Need: Reversible labeling of native RNA in a sequence-independent and membrane-selective manner  … Read More

Ketone Carbonyl Atom Swap Platform For Drug Discovery And Lead Optimization

SUMMARY A two-step chemical process using a special reagent to swap a ketone's oxygen atom with a sulfur atom creating new compounds, particularly useful for making improved drugs The Unmet Need: Efficient strategies for achieving precise functional group modifications of bioactive compounds… Read More

One-Pot Organic-Inorganic Composite Synthesis For Durable Solid-State Battery Electrolytes

SUMMARY A one-pot method synthesizes a hybrid sulfide–polymer composite by crosslinking Li3PS4 with an organic polymer – yielding a flexible, durable electrolyte with excellent ionic conductivity for use in lithium metal batteries. The Unmet… Read More

A New Method of Isotope Enrichment and Separation: Preferential Embedding of Heavier Isotopes Into Ices

SUMMARY Isotope separation methods are key to numerous scientific and industrial processes. Nuclear power plants and weapons, for example, require fuels enriched in a select isotope. And isotopically pure or enriched samples are used in scientific research and medical procedures. Isotopes can be separated via fractional distillation, gaseous diffusion, and… Read More

A Controllable Synthesis Method Of Layered Oxides By Electrochemical Assisted Ion-Exchange

SUMMARY Lithium-rich layered oxides are promising cathode materials with remarkable electrochemical performance that will revolutionize the electronics, transportation, battery, and grid energy storage industries. The ion-exchange process is a soft chemical synthesis route that is used to prepare new meta-stable materials, including layered oxides, as it separates and purifies crucial… Read More

New System for the Synthesis of Silicon-Based Materials for Biological Modulation

SUMMARY Pure silicon materials with strong photoelectrochemical properties are  advantageous to biomodulations devices due to their excellent dielectric properties that are promising in many electrical transmission applications. Synthesis of such materials have previously been completed with dopant modulation but lack efficiency and fast production. This technology addresses prior shortcomings by… Read More

Sulfur-Containing Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Materials

SUMMARY Organic‐inorganic hybrid sulfur‐containing materials show promising properties for a variety of applications (e.g., superconductors, thermoelectrics, etc.). Efficient synthesis of such compounds—especially those containing dithiolene‐type ligands—has historically been challenging due to general instability of the constituent components. As such, prior demonstrations of dithiolene‐tin/silicon agents have been limited to… Read More

A Biodegradable Packaging Material Made From Hybrid Hydrogel of Starch, Granular, Chitosan Fiber, and Polyacrylamide

SUMMARY Starch and chitosan are abundant, natural, complex polysaccharides. In plants, starch is the carbohydrate energy reserve. Chitosan is the de-acetylated form of chitin, a structural polysaccharide found in the exoskeleton of arthropods.  The invention is a new composite material that consists of starch granular, chitosan fiber,… Read More

Functionalized Molybdenum Disulfide Membranes For Water Filtration

SUMMARY The invention is a method to fabricate membranes made from exfoliated molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) for improved separation performance and membrane stability. Reverse osmosis (RO) membranes are undergoing widespread adoption in desalination applications as global water supplies are becoming increasingly stressed, forcing consumers to turn to more challenged… Read More

Improved Electrochemical Li Extraction From Seawater And Other Dilute Li Sources Using Mixed Li An Na Layered Oxides

SUMMARY Use of Li in electric vehicle batteries, portable electronic devices, and stationary energy storage applications has expanded significantly in recent years, and this growth is expected to continue to increase.  The primary commercial technology used to recover Li is its extraction from concentrated brine water (83%… Read More