Controlling reactive materials by crystallisation and hosting

  • Alan Martin

Student thesis: Doctoral ThesisPhD

Abstract

The research herein presents an approach to stabilising reactive materials by engineering and designing strategies for forming multi-component materials containing the reactive molecules by use of their non-covalent intermolecular interactions. These interactions may be utilised as part of a design approach to create new materials of more beneficial physical and chemical properties for the desired application.The reactive materials focussed on in this research are organic peroxyacids, in particular peroxyacetic acid, meta-chloroperbenzoic acid and 6-phthalimidoperoxyhexanoic acid. The stabilities of these target materials under different conditions are probed to find a suitable environment for crystallisation experiments. Crystal structures of the materials were isolated and characterised and the peroxyacids were subsequently cocrystallised with materials chosen to interact with the target molecules to form new molecular complexes, including carboxylic acids, π stacking materials and metal salts.A hosting approach was also employed to form multi-component systems containing these materials, crystallising them with larger, stable, structure-generating compounds with the aim of intercalating the reactive molecules in their stable structure. To this end, urea based compounds, cyclodextrins and Montmorillonite clay were investigated as hosting materials. Candidate multi-component materials were synthesised which successfully retain peroxyacid reactivity.A second set of materials studied was agrichemicals, which also frequently have reactive character, in which a change in physical properties was pursued by the method of forming new crystalline complexes. Five new crystalline agrochemical molecular complexes were synthesised and tested for thermal stability in comparison to the original materials to assess for changes in properties of the multi-component materials.
Date of Award1 Jul 2014
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • University of Bath
SupervisorChick Wilson (Supervisor)

Keywords

  • peroxyacid
  • 6-phthalimidoperoxyhexanoic acid
  • XRPD
  • cocrystallisation
  • molecular complex
  • crystal engineering
  • reactive materials
  • hosting
  • peroxides

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