Developing functional materials from renewable resources would be fascinating yet demanding practice, which will have a direct impact on industrial applications, and economically viable choices. This talk discusses an emerging model of generating new chemicals, intermediates and materials in a ‘biorefinery’. Our continued efforts in this area have led us to develop new molecular materials through non-covalent synthesis of amphiphilic molecules derived from industrial by-products and co-products. The family of new materials generated include emulsions, molecular gels, solid bilayers, scintillating gels, battery components and liquid crystals. More recently, harnessing the availability of ‘chiral pool’ of carbohydrates and selectivity of enzymes catalysis, our laboratory produced an array of amphiphilic molecules from simple sugars and sugar alcohols conjugating with appropriate fatty acids. Intriguingly, following the principles of green and supramolecular chemistry, we have developed building blocks-to-assembled materials <i>viz</i> vegetable oil structuring agents and green battery components. Redox-active organic compounds are re-emerging in the energy storage community bringing with them interesting opportunities such as design flexibility, lightweight, low cost and/or restrained environmental burden. These results will lead to efficient molecular design of next generation multifunctional materials from underutilized plant/crop-based renewable feedstock.

Bio-derived molecular materials: Ability to adapt, clean, energy storage and therapeutic

2019 Fall National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.