Prof.Dr. Ognjen Miljanic Department of Chemistry University of Houston, United States

Reversibility: From Messy Mixtures to Ordered Sponges

Living organisms are masters of chemoselectivity. Each cell contains hundreds of chemical constituents which nevertheless manage to react with absolute selectivi-ty, quantitative yields, and without any need for purification. In contrast, synthe-tic chemistry expends tremendous amounts of material, energy, and labor on puri-fication processes. Can the synthetic efficiency of biological systems be replicated in the lab? Can that be done in the absence of enzymes? My research groups seeks to answer these questions, preferably in the affirmative. We use reversible bond-forming reactions and noncovalent interactions to produce new and useful materials and develop synthetic protocols. Complicated mixtures of precursors have been shown to be synthetically useful precursors for the production of value-added chemicals in high purities and yields. On theother hand, combination of re-versible chemistry with irreversible precipitation has led us to porous solid-state materials which have proven to be competent adsorbents for hydrocarbons, Fre-ons, and fluorinated anesthetics. This seminar will review our work in these areas with an emphasis on the underlying principles of physical organic chemistry.