Opportunities for the Future

Another example that has been reported in the patent literature [113] is the reaction of fluorspar with CO and SO3 (eqs 36 and 37). The mechanism and viability of this process remains to be determined. 

Heterogeneous catalysis has played a key role in the synthesis of CFC alternatives. However, for the process to be environmentally safer, the HCl must be recycled or sold. Although it is outside the scope of this chapter, it is important to recognize that new catalytic processes based on Deacon chemistry (eq 38) have been commercialized by Mitsui-Toatsa [114] using Cr-based catalysts. 

Morikawa, S. Samejima, M. Yoshitake, N. Tatematsu, Jpn Patent 2-178237 (Asahi Glass Co.) 1990, (Chem. Abstr., 113, 151 815). 

Schultz, H. J. Vahlensieck, R. Gebele, US Patent 3904701 (Dynamit-Nobel) 1975 (Chem. Abstr., 74, 3310). 

EU Patent 562509 (Hoechst) 1993 (Chem. Abstr., 119, 270624). 

Some aspects of synthetic chemistry have changed in response to environmental needs. For example, in the pharmaceutical industry the classical methods produce, on the average, about nine times as much disposable waste as desired product. This has led to the demand for procedures that have atom efficiency, in which all the atoms of the reacting compounds appear in the product. Thus (as discussed earlier) the demand for atom economy offers additional opportunities for creative invention of transformations. 

As we increasingly understand the chemistry performed by living systems, in particular that catalyzed by enzymes, we will continue to develop biomimetic methods to achieve some of the special selectivities that enzymes show. Enzymes can selectively bind a particular molecule out of the mixture of substances in the cell, then hold it in such a way that the geometry of the enzyme-substrate com- 

There is another approach that is increasingly part of synthesis the use of enzymes as catalysts. This approach is strengthened by the new ability of chemists and molecular biologists to modify enzymes and change their properties. There is also interest in the use of artificial enzymes for this purpose, either those that are enzyme-like but are not proteins, or those that are proteins but based on antibodies. Catalytic antibodies and nonprotein enzyme mimics have shown some of the attractive features of enzymes in processes for which natural enzymes are not suitable. 

Sustainability, hazard reduction, and protection of health and the environment remain great concerns for the process industries. Many of the raw materials used—especially those derived from oil, gas, and some plants and animals—have been and in some cases continue to be depleted at rates either large compared to known reserves or faster than replenishment. In addition, there is the desire for products, intermediates, solvents, catalysts, and other materials produced or selected for use in chemical manufacture to be as safe and nontoxic as possible during their use and to be recoverable or benignly degradable after their use. 

by the very nature of chemical transformations, there are almost always unused chemicals remaining. These chemical leftovers include contaminants in the raw materials, incompletely converted raw materials, unavoidable coproducts, unselective reaction by-products, spent catalysts, and solvents. There have long been efforts to minimize the production of such waste products, and to recover and reuse those that cannot be eliminated. For those that cannot be reused, some different use has been sought, and as a last resort, efforts have been made to safely dispose of whatever remains. The same efforts apply to any leftovers from the production of the energy from the fuels produced or consumed by the processing industries. Of particular immediate and increasing concern are the potential detrimental effects of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere from fossil fuel combustion, as discussed further in Chapters 9 and 10. 

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Chapters 3 to 11 of the report then take up particular areas of fundamental or applied chemistry and chemical engineering. Each chapter starts with a specific list of some important challenges for the future. Then the chapter has a section on goals of the field, a section on progress to date to meet those goals, a section on challenges and opportunities for the future, and finally a section on why this is important. 

The ideal scenario would be to have the power of a traditional IR analyzer but with the cost and simplicity of a simple filter device, or even better to reduce the size down to that of a sensor (such as the spectral detector mentioned earlier) or a simple handheld device. This is not far-fetched, and with technologies emerging from the telecommunications industry, the life science industry and even nanotechnology, there can be a transition into analyzer opportunities for the future. There is definitely room for a paradigm shift, with the understanding that if an analyzer becomes simpler and less expensive to implement then the role of analyzers/sensor can expand dramatically. With part of this comes the phrase good enough is OK - there is no need for the ultimate in versatility or sophistication. Bottom line is that even in process instrumentation, simple is beautiful. 

It is the goal of this book to present in one place the key features, methods, tools, and techniques of physical inorganic chemistry, to provide examples where this chemistry has produced a major contribution to multidisciplinary efforts, and to point out the possibilities and opportunities for the future. Despite the enormous importance and use of the more standard methods and techniques, those are not included here because books and monographs have already been dedicated specifically to instrumental analysis and laboratory techniques. The 10 chapters in this book cover inorganic and bioinorganic spectroscopy (Solomon and Bell), Mossbauer spectroscopy (Miinck and Martinho), magnetochemical methods (Kogerler), cryoradiolysis (Denisov), absolute chiral structures (Riehl and Kaizaki), flash photolysis and studies of transients (Ferraudi), activation volumes (van Eldik and Hubbard), chemical kinetics (Bakac), heavy atom isotope effects (Roth), and computational studies in mechanistic transition metal chemistry (Harvey). 

The studies presented here illuminate just a few of the exciting possibilities for the use of VSFS to study chemistry at liquid/liquid surfaces. Solvents and adsorbates can be probed and orientations and conformations obtained. Molecular dynamics has recently been employed to gain additional information using the constraints provided by the spectroscopy. The future of this technique lies in expanding the spectrum to longer wavelengths so that more vibrations can be probed in each molecule and more complicated molecules can be studied. The study of interfacial dynamics will also offer exciting opportunities for the future. 

However, there is still a lot to do. The chemistry of lanthanide carbonyl and olefin complexes, and the complexes containing a lanthanide to transition metal bond and/or a lanthanide to lanthanide bond is still underdeveloped. To fully utilize these new aspects of reductive chemistry clever approaches will be needed. The development of highly active activatorless olefin polymerization catalysts and chiral versions of these families of complexes, and the catalysts for Cl chemistry are still the challenges. So, organolanthanide chemistry will continue to be an attractive field for organometallic chemists and there are many opportunities for the future. 

For results like those presented in Schemes 4.82-4.85, the routine, matter-of-fact style of regular publications seems almost inappropriate. Here we are dealing with an outstanding discovery. The previously unimaginable creation of a molecular vessel to perform chemical reactions between isolated molecules was finally achieved and thus brought unprecedented opportunities for the future development of organic chemistry. "... 

In conclusion, the potential developments in pulsed neutron sources and instrumentation provide exciting opportunities for the future study of polymers. 

However, these efforts need to be combined with new research works in the process dynamics and in the study of advanced control systems applied to integrated membrane systems. These multidisciplinary smdies will offer interesting opportunities for the future development of membrane engineering. 

There are roughly ten million classified chemical compounds at the present time. Each individual molecule has many properties to compute and/or measure binding energy, electron density, atomic structure, spectra (vibrational, rotational and electronic), reaction rates, electron and molecular scattering cross sections. However, the spectacular opportunity for the future lies in compounds not yet synthesized or classified. The number of unexplored forms of matter which can fit into a small box one centimeter on a side is... 

The great usefulness of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) for a better understanding of catalysis, electrocatalysis and electrodeposition at the fundamental level is presented by M. Szklarczyk, M. Strawski and K. Bierikowski in a concise liistorical review which summarizes key landmarks in this important area and presents some of the almost limitless opportunities for the future. 

It should be clear that the purpose of this chapter is not to review the normal role of the statistician in the pharmaceutical industry today. Instead, this chapter is intended to challenge the status quo and to highlight some critical problems and largely unmet needs that logically intersect both the expertise and the sphere of influence of professional statistician in the pharmaceutical industry. In some ways the intention is to revisit the basic tenets of experimental design and analysis to see where we have drifted away from sound scientific principles, and where we may have unexplored opportunities for the future—a future certain to be different from the past. 

Many additional examples of collaborative work were brought up during the workshop, and these are summarized in Appendix G (Interfaces). It is frequently difficult to identify the particular scientific accomplishment that have led to environmental improvements or enhanced environmental understanding, in large part because environmental studies are inherently multidisciplinary. Consequently, cooperation across disciplines—as described above and in Appendix G—will continue to be necessary to fully understand and solve environmental problems, so the list also represents research opportunities for the future. 

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