High-Capacity Poly(4-vinylpyridine) Grafted PolyHIPE Foams for Efficient Plutonium Separation and Purification.

The use of anion-exchange resins to separate and purify plutonium from various sources represents a major bottleneck in the throughput that can be achieved when this step is part of a larger separation scheme. Slow sorption kinetics and broad elution profiles necessitate long contact times with the resin, and the recovered Pu is relatively dilute, requiring the handling of large volumes of hazardous material. In this work, high internal-phase emulsion (HIPE) foams were prepared with a comonomer containing a dormant nitroxide. Using surface-initiated nitroxide-mediated polymerization, the foam surface was decorated with a brush of poly(4-vinylpyridine), and the resulting materials were tested under controlled flow conditions as anion-exchange media for plutonium separations. It was found that the grafted foams demonstrated greater ion-exchange capacity per unit volume than a commercial resin commonly used for Pu separations and had narrower elution profiles. The ion-exchange sites (quaternized pyridine) were exposed on the surface of the large pores of the foam, resulting in convective mass transfer, the driving force for the excellent separation properties exhibited by the synthesized polyHIPE foams.

Linear free-energy relationship and rate study on a silylation-based kinetic resolution: mechanistic insights.

The substituent effect of different p-substituted triphenylsilyl chlorides on silylation-based kinetic resolutions was explored. Electron-donating groups slow down the reaction rate and improve the selectivity, while electron-withdrawing groups increase the reaction rate and decrease the selectivity. Linear free-energy relationships were found correlating both selectivity factors and initial rates to the σ(para) Hammett parameters. A weak correlation of selectivity factors to Charton values was also observed when just alkyl substituents were employed but was nonexistent when substituents with more electronic effects were incorporated. The rate data suggest that a significant redistribution of charge occurs in the transition state, with an overall decrease in positive charge. The linear free-energy relationship derived from selectivity factors is best understood by the Hammond postulate. Early and late transition states describe the amount of substrate participation in the transition state and therefore the difference in energy between the diastereomeric transition states of the two enantiomers. This work highlights our efforts toward understanding the mechanism and origin of selectivity in our silylation-based kinetic resolution.