NSF Directorate for Engineering | Division of

1. NSF Directorate for Engineering | Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (CBET) Chemical, Biochemical, and Biotechnology Systems Cluster Chemical and BiologicalSeparations Program Director - Rosemarie D. Wesson - rwesson@nsf.gov Research Focus and Trends Novel Materials for Separations Separation Processes Molecular Engineering of Chemical, Biochemical, and Materials Systems 1

2. Novel Materials for Separations Emphasis Areas: Polymers, zeolites, nanostructures •  Solid adsorbents, liquid extractants Membranes for environmental, separations, and fuel-cell applications 2

3. Separation Processes Emphasis Areas: Extraction Ion Exchange Distillation Crystallization Filtration Field-Induced Effects 3

4. Molecular Engineering of Chemical, Biochemical, and Materials Systems Emphasis Areas: Modeling of transport processes (with other Programs) Functionalized materials for membranes and adsorbents 4

5. Budget FY 2009-Approximately $8 Million Description Total Proposals Received Unsolicited Awards CAREER (10 Proposals) EaGER GOALI Workshop/Conferences Supplements (GRS, REU, etc.) Total Dollars - - - $7,287,000 $820,000 $298,000 $150,000 $160,000 $300,000 # of Awards 181 29 2 4 3 7 12 5

6. Crossing Membrane Boundaries: Investigating How Heat Energy Moves Across Thin Films The Transport-Model-Independent Description of Membrane Transport: Optical and Thermo-Optical Spectroscopic Experiments and Analysis Sankar Nair- Georgia Institute of Technology Using a computational approach, the team mathematically modeled different types of scattering processes of heat energy in thin films.  Through the mathematical modeling, the researchers discovered that limiting factor of the thermal conductivity of a zeolite is the scattering of heat energy due to the arrangement of pores in the zeolite material.  Credit: Sankar Nair, Georgia Institute of Technology Permission Granted CBET-0437621 6

7. Improving Environmentally-Friendly Processes Involving Non-volatile Ionic Liquid Solvents (a.k.a. Salts) Ruth Baltus - Clarkson University Room Temperature Ionic Liquids (RTILs) are being considered as a "green" replacement for less viscous conventional solvents and for carbon dioxide sequestration processes. A ten-fold decrease in ionic liquid viscosity observed with the addition of water (disrupting IL anion-cation coulombic interactions) and an observed increase in viscosity resulting from the addition of lithium salts (enhancing coulombic interactions).   Credit: Ruth Baltus, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Clarkson University Permission Granted CBET-0522589 7

8. Researchers Outline Obstacles and Solutions for Providing Water in the 21st Century Mark Shannon - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign One new approach to disinfection was described last spring by researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. They demonstrated a new class of synthetic antimicrobials that disinfect by inducing negative curvature in bacterial membranes, generating pores. Image Credit: Gerard Wong University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign CBET - 0120978 8

9. Collection, Focusing, and Metering of Biomolecules Victor Ugaz - Texas A & M University Left: Conventional electrode capture process enables fluorescently labeled DNA detection at anode. Right: DNA enrichment at the anode drives formation of an ordered phase visible under ordinary white light with no chemical labeling. 9 CBET - 0554108