SUPERCRITICALITY: FROM BLUE FLUID TO GREEN CHEMISTRY

Speaker: Martyn Poliakoff (Research Professor of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Nottingham)
Series: SciSoc – Cambridge University Scientific Society
Admission (organiser's words): [All talks are free to attend.]

[All talks are free to attend.]

This lecture describes how I became fascinated in supercritical fluids (SCFs), which are gases such as CO2, Xe or C2H4, compressed until they are nearly as dense as liquids. SCFs display an unusual combination of some of the properties of gases and liquids. I explain how SCFs led me to work in Green Chemistry, developing cleaner, more sustainable ways of making chemicals and materials [1]. I also show how chance

played a big role in determining how things developed for me and led me to the interface of chemistry and engineering and to a major current project Great British Chemicals [2]. For further information see references [3 – 45]

References

[1] “New Directions in Inorganic and Metal-Organic Coordination Chemistry in Supercritical Fluids” (J. A. Darr and M. Poliakoff)

Chem. Rev. 99, (1999) 495-541

[2] See https://greatbritishchemicals.ac.uk/

[3]“The Selective Catalytic Hydrogenation of Organic Compounds in Supercritical Fluids as a Continuous Process” M. G. Hitzler, F.

R. Smail, S. K. Ross and M. Poliakoff) Org. Proc. Res. Dev. 2, (1998) 137-46.

[4] “Detecting Phase Transitions in Supercritical Mixtures: an Enabling Tool for Greener Chemical Reactions” (J. Ke, Y. Sanchez-

Vicente, G. R. Akien, A. A. Novitskiy, G. Comak, V. N. Bagratashvili, M. W. George and M. Poliakoff) Proc. Roy. Soc. A, 466,

(2010 ) 2799-2818.

[5] “Applying Green Chemistry to the Photochemical Route to Artemisinin”(Z. Amara, J. F. B. Bellamy, R. Horvath, S. J. Miller,

A. Beeby, A. Burgard, K. Rossen, M. Poliakoff and M. W. George) Nature Chemistry 7, (2015)489-495.

[6] “Preparative-scale organometallic Chemistry in supercritical fluids; isolation of Cr(CO)5(C2H4) as a stable solid at room

temperature” (J. A. Banister, S. M. Howdle and M. Poliakoff), J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Commun. (1993) 1814-15.