Selenopropyl Silicon Gel and Highly Efficient Metal Scavenger
Overview
A variety of industries and applications, from the processing of radioactive waste to the development of new pharmaceutical drugs, would benefit greatly from a more sophisticated way to remove or scavenge certain metal ions from a material. Yongsong Huang and colleagues have developed a method for using a selenium-containing medium to achieve that goal. Their invention has the potential to refine the process of chromatography, the standard practice for separating a mixture of materials into its constituent elements. Their medium can bind specifically to metal ions such as palladium, silver, platinum, and nickel that are widely employed for industrial, medical, and pharmaceutical applications.
Market Opportunity
Several major industries and industrial applications rely on the use of ion-exchange resins to remove metal ions from a mixture. This includes water softening, the removal of metals from wastewater, cleaning up radioactive waste, the analysis of geological samples, and the purification of rare earth metals, which are widely used consumer electronic devices. However, because of the high cost of these resins and their lack of selectivity in extracting only the targeted metal, these cases would all benefit from a more refined method.
The creation of new chemicals and pharmaceuticals makes frequent use of reactions in which a metal is a catalyst. Yet regulations that govern drug approval, especially in the United States and the European Union, are becoming increasingly stringent about how much metal is permitted in pharmaceuticals, sometimes permitting only parts per million or even parts per billion of palladium, silver, or lead, for example.
Innovation and Meaningful Advantages
The resins available today for the removal of metals, which are based on imidodiacetic acid, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), or picolylamine. are only marginally selective for a particular heavy metal ion and require complex procedures to be efficient in commercial applications.
The method invented by Huang, et. al., uses a medium that has a selenium atom or selenium containing group that effectively binds to metal and metal compounds, allowing for cleaner extraction of those metals. Such an approach greatly improves the efficiency of the chromatography process for separating or scavenging metals without the need for a more sophisticated design that incorporates greater pressure, which would be required for other methods to improve the effectiveness of chromatography.
Collaboration Opportunity
We are seeking an investment opportunity to further develop this innovative technology.
Principal Investigator
Yongsong Huang, PhD
Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences
Brown University
Brown tech ID #2133
Yongsong_Huang @brown.edu
https://vivo.brown.edu/display/yohuang