Chad A. Johnson, Chemical Engineering, University of Kansas, 1530 W 15th Street, 4120 Learned Hall, Lawrence, KS 66045, Joseph Nguyen, Chemistry, University of Kansas, 2010 Malott Hall, 1251 Wescoe Dr, Lawrence, KS 66045, A.s Borovik, Chemistry, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, and Bala Subramaniam, Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis/Chemical Engineering, University of Kansas, 1501 Wakarusa Dr., Suite A-110, Lawrence, KS 66047.
Nanoparticles of metal complexes are rare because of the limited methods for their preparation. We have used precipitation with compressed antisolvent (PCA) to process nanoparticles of neutral metal-salen complexes (N,N'-salicylidiene)-1,2-ethylene-di-aminato(2-)). Current work is focused on comparing the gas binding and catalytic properties of precipitated nanoparticles against the starting material. Preliminary gas uptake studies with a suite of techniques such as Tapered Element Oscillating Microbalance (TEOM), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), and Rubotherm magnetic suspension balance have demonstrated that nanoparticles in the solid state bind both nitric oxide and dioxygen while the starting material shows no measurable binding. Research is also focusing on coating the metal complex nanoparticles on solid supports followed by testing the ability of the coated supports to bind different permanent gases. These results will be presented and discussed.