Donald Wayne Whisenhunt

The development of combinatorial chemistry methods for coating development: I. Overview of the experimental factory

Abstract Combinatorial chemistry has proven to be a valuable tool for the development of new compounds. The combinatorial methodology is well suited to the development of complex, multicomponent materials that, typically, require extensive experimentation for their development. As a result, coating development appeared to be a good candidate for the application of the combinatorial methodology. A “combinatorial factory” capable of preparing and testing over 100 coatings per day has been developed. The components of the factory consist of: (1) an automated system to prepare liquid coating formulations; (2) a novel coating application process capable of making high density arrays of coatings of controlled thickness; (3) curing of the coating arrays either thermally or with UV light; (4) testing of the coatings using newly developed high throughput screening methods; and (5) a data handling process to quickly identify the most promising coatings produced. Various aspects of the application of the combinatorial methodology to coating development are described.

Combinatorial discovery of metal co-catalysts for the carbonylation of phenol

Abstract The palladium-catalyzed carbonylation of phenol to form diphenyl carbonate (DPC) requires the presence of a metal co-catalyst to catalyze the reoxidation of palladium from Pd 0 to Pd 2+ in the presence of oxygen. In this study, we utilize a high throughput screening (HTS) methodology to rapidly study the nature of the co-catalyst with an emphasis on combinations of metal co-catalysts that appear to work in a synergistic manner to increase palladium usage. Critical new developments were made in using a small-scale reactor in diffusion controlled systems. The HTS system is described along with the optimized catalyst packages that were determined. Additionally, the results from HTS were used to better elucidate the mechanism of this potentially important commercial reaction.