New Hybrid Glass More Stable For Chemical Separations

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A researcher at the University at Buffalo has developed and patented a new hybrid glass material that could replace traditional silica materials for the analytical-separations columns that are ubiquitous throughout the chemical, pharmaceutical, environmental and biotech industries.

Luis A. Colon, Ph.D., UB associate professor of chemistry, was trying to find a way to make the silica-synthesis process more efficient when he discovered that an organic-inorganic hybrid glass material he had developed using sol-gel processing was far more stable than the silica material traditionally used in chromatographic columns at both very-low and very-high pH levels. Sol-gel processing is a low-temperature method of producing glass with better purity and homogeneity than high-temperature conventional processes.

"Right now, when separations involve either low or high pH, the silica material out of which chromatographic columns generally are made is destroyed," said Colon. "That means that chemists who want to separate compounds at high- or low-pH levels are limited and must switch columns. The unique characteristic of our material is that it is stable and applicable for solutions with a pH below two or as high as 11."

Colon has shown that this hybrid silica material can be used at such high- or low-pH levels and last for many months.

In recognition and support of the work, the National Science Foundation has awarded Colon a $260,000, two-year "Special Creativity Extension" grant.

The objective of providing a two-year extension on an original grant is to offer a small percentage of "the most creative investigators an extended opportunity to attack adventurous, 'high-risk' opportunities," according to the NSF.

Colon will use the grant extension to further study the physical and chemical properties of the hybrid material and design improved ones with even more diverse applications.