Hybrid crystals, single phase

In simple experiments, particulate silica-supported CSPs having various cin-chonan carbamate selectors immobilized to the surface were employed in an enantioselective liquid-solid batch extraction process for the enantioselective enrichment of the weak binding enantiomer of amino acid derivatives in the liquid phase (methanol-0.1M ammonium acetate buffer pH 6) and the stronger binding enantiomer in the solid phase [64]. For example, when a CSP with the 6>-9-(tcrt-butylcarbamoyl)-6 -neopentoxy-cinchonidine selector was employed at an about 10-fold molar excess as related to the DNB-Leu selectand which was dissolved as a racemate in the liquid phase specified earlier, an enantiomeric excess of 89% could be measured in the supernatant after a single extraction step (i.e., a single equilibration step). This corresponds to an enantioselectivity factor of 17.7 (a-value in HPLC amounted to 31.7). Such a batch extraction method could serve as enrichment technique in hybrid processes such as in combination with, for example, crystallization. In the presented study, it was however used for screening of the enantiomer separation power of a series of CSPs. 

In 2002, Chiang and coworkers[124] developed a new scheme for the confined synthesis of TPA-silicalite nanocrystals. The surfactant cetyltinmethylammonium bromide (CTAMeBr) (in ethanol solution) was added to the single- and double-heated TPA-silicalite precursor sols (SHPS and DHPS), and the mixture was flocculated at a certain pH value to collect the nano-size silicate species in the precursors, and then dried. The dried precursor/surfactant hybrid was pressed into pellets and then steamed in a stainless steel autoclave at 110 150°C for 7 36 h. Finally, the product was calcined to remove the surfactants and TPA. The particle sizes of silicalite-1 produced in this method are about 30 nm. The study indicates that the nanoparticles collected by surfactants already exhibit the structural features of MFI. They crystallize entirely to form silicalite-1 nanocrystals after steam treatment at 110 150 °C. This new solid-phase approach provides a way to synthesize MFI nanocrystals without the problem of separation and collecting nanocrystals from suspension, and it also avoids the large consumption and cost of special mesoporous templates used in the confined-synthesis methods. 

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