Liquid Phase Peptide Synthesis via One-Pot Nanostar Sieving (PEPSTAR).

Herein, a one-pot liquid phase peptide synthesis featuring iterative addition of amino acids to a "nanostar" support, with organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) for isolation of the growing peptide after each synthesis cycle is reported. A cycle consists of coupling, Fmoc removal, then sieving out of the reaction by-products via nanofiltration in a reactor-separator, or synthesizer apparatus where no phase or material transfers are required between cycles. The three-armed and monodisperse nanostar facilitates both efficient nanofiltration and real-time reaction monitoring of each process cycle.

Membrane Fractionation of Liquors from Lignin-First Biorefining.

For the utilization of each lignin fraction in the lignin liquors, the development of separation strategies to fractionate the lignin streams by molecular weight ranges constitutes a timely challenge to be tackled. Herein, membrane filtration was applied to the refining of lignin streams obtained from a lignin-first biorefining process based on H-transfer reactions catalyzed by Raney Ni, by using 2-PrOH as a part of the lignin extraction liquor and as an H-donor. A two-stage membrane cascade was considered to separate and concentrate the monophenol-rich fraction from the liquor.

The Selectivity Challenge in Organic Solvent Nanofiltration: Membrane and Process Solutions.

Recent development of organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) materials has been overwhelmingly directed toward tight membranes with ultrahigh permeance. However, emerging research into OSN applications is suggesting that improved separation selectivity is at least as important as further increases in membrane permeance. Membrane solutions are being proposed to improve selectivity, mostly by exploiting solute/solvent/membrane interactions and by fabricating tailored membranes.

Continuous Consecutive Reactions with Inter-Reaction Solvent Exchange by Membrane Separation.

Pharmaceutical production typically involves multiple reaction steps with separations between successive reactions. Two processes which complicate the transition from batch to continuous operation in multistep synthesis are solvent exchange (especially high-boiling- to low-boiling-point solvent), and catalyst separation. Demonstrated here is membrane separation as an enabling platform for undertaking these processes during continuous operation.

Batchwise and continuous nanofiltration of POSS-tagged Grubbs-Hoveyda-type olefin metathesis catalysts.

New molecular-weight-enlarged metathesis catalysts, which bear polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) tags, were synthesized and characterized. The catalysts can be recovered from the reaction mixture by using nanofiltration techniques and can be reused. It was found that the membranes Starmem 228 and PuraMem 280 successfully separate the catalyst from the post-reaction mixtures to below 3 ppm.