Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais / A utilização de sistemas de liberação controlada de fármacos é um tema que recebeu grande destaque nas últimas décadas no setor farmacêutico, devido aos grandes benefícios terapêuticos e às vantagens econômicas associadas. Materiais mesoporosos ordenados, como o SBA-15 e o MCM-41 são excelentes candidatos para serem utilizados como dispositivos de liberação controlada pois proporcionam uma distribuição homogênea da droga através da matriz e alcançam uma cinética de liberação controlada em função de algumas propriedades como: distribuição estreita de tamanho de poros, rede de canais e poros bem definidos na escala nanométrica (2 nm a 50 nm) e capacidade de incorporar uma variedade de espécies químicas com atividade terapêutica. As amostras mesoporosas foram sintetizadas em diferentes temperaturas, modificadas com colágeno, incorporadas com atenolol e caracterizadas por meio das seguintes técnicas: difração de raios X, espectroscopia de infravermelho, microscopia eletrônica de transmissão e adsorção de nitrogênio. Os resultados de difração de raios X e microscopia eletrônica de transmissão mostraram claramente a presença do arranjo hexagonal dos poros destes materiais. A presença de grupos funcionais característicos da rede de sílica, bem como a presença do atenolol e do colágeno nas matrizes mesoporosas foi verificada através da espectroscopia de absorção na região de infravermelho. As isotermas de adsorção de N2 indicaram a presença de mesoporos no material bem como a presença do fármaco incorporado nos poros das diferentes matrizes. Além disso, a técnica de adsorção de gases demonstrou que as características estruturais da sílica mesoporosa SBA-15 podem ser ontroladas modificando a temperatura de envelhecimento. O diâmetro de poros aumentou de 5,2 nm para 7,1 nm e a espessura de parede diminuiu de 5,86 nm para 4,95 com o aumento da temperatura de envelhecimento de 60C para 130C. Uma interessante característica observada é a presença de microporos nas paredes do SBA-15 que foi verificada nas matrizes envelhecidas a 60 e 80C. Os estudos de liberação do fármaco nas diferentes matrizes foram realizados in vitro utilizando um espectrofotômetro UV-VIS e as taxas de liberação foram expressas utilizando o modelo cinético de Higuchi. A cinética de liberação do fármaco das diferentes matrizes de sílica foi analisada e verificou-se que a taxa de liberação pode ser controlada considerando três parâmetros: estrutura, carga de compactação e modificação superficial. / In the last decade, progress in the development of nanosized hybrid therapeutics and drug delivery systems has been remarkable. Mesoporous materials such as SBA-15 and MCM-41 have been considered very promising materials for hosting and further delivery of biological agents within silica samples and for controlling their release kinetics from the matrix due to their well arranged structure and pores of well-defined size in the 2-50 nm nanoscale range. In this work, the characteristics of MCM-41 and SBA-15 prepared in different temperatures and the behavior of these systems regarding to microencapsulation of a model drug were investigated. The samples were characterized by XRD, FTIR, TEM, and N2 adsorption techniques. Atenolol was used as a model drug to study the kinetics of drug delivery. XRD results and TEM images showed an well-ordered mesopore structure, suggesting that the structure of samples can be described as a honeycomb of hexagonal mesopores separated by continuous silica walls. This structure is the result of hexagonal packing on unidimensional cylindrical pores. The presence of the drug on the mesopore walls was confirmed by FTIR. The N2 adsorption experiments showed that the SBA-15 materials posses an average pore size varying from 5.2 nm to 7.1 nm as a function of the synthesis temperature. A type IV adsorption isotherm was obtained, which is associated with the presence of mesopores. The adsorption of the drug in different materials leads to a decrease in the surface area and pore volume. It was concluded that the structural characteristics can be controlled by changing the synthesis temperature. Higher temperatures resulted in larger pore size and in thinner silica walls varying from 5.86 to 4.95 nm. The presence of microporosity was verified for the aged samples at low temperature. The release of atenolol from different matrices was carried out in vitro and the results were analyzed according to the kinetic model of Higuchi. The influence of the pore architecture and size, the pressure to form the disks and the surface modification of the device on the release kinetics of the atenolol was studied.

Bien que les matériaux poreux soient nombreux dans la nature, la synthèse en laboratoirede matériaux présentant une porosité multi-échelle ou hiérarchisée est toujours délicate. Enutilisant la matière molle (émulsions concentrées, auto-assemblages, mésophases lyotropes, etc)et le procédé sol-gel, il est possible d’obtenir une grande variété de matériaux monolithiques, àporosité hiérarchisée, composés d’un squelette silicique. La porosité de ces matériaux peut êtreoptimisée en jouant avec la nature de l’émulsion, le tensioactif utilisé, ou avec l’ajout d’agentd’extérieur comme le sel. En combinant ces méthodes, des matériaux possédant une mésoporositéhexagonale ont été obtenus. Grâce à leur surface riche en silanols, ces matériaux poreux ont étéfonctionnalisés par greffage post-synthèse de molécules organiques. Dès lors, l’immobilisationd’entités biologiques comme les enzymes au sein de la structure poreuse a permis d’utiliser cesmatériaux pour des réactions d’hydrolyse, de synthèse ou de décoloration en milieu aqueux dansune approche de « chimie verte ». Enfin, des micro-organismes ont été piégés dans ces matériauxporeux qui ont été recouverts d’une coque en silice. Les micro-organismes peuvent s’y développersans restriction et leur croissance est très différente de celle observée dans les cultures classiques.La coque en silice, formée en surface, est donc imperméable au passage des bactéries (taillemicrométrique) mais perméable à la diffusion des substrats et des réactifs. Cette diffusion a étémise à profit pour réaliser des réactions enzymatiques en cascade. Ces matériaux se positionnentcomme des biocatalyseurs très prometteurs pour de nombreuses applications. / Although porous materials are numerous in nature, the laboratory synthesis of materials withmulti-scale or hierarchical porosity is always difficult. By using soft matter (concentrated emulsions,self-assemblies, lyotropic mesophases, etc.) and the sol-gel process, it is possible to obtaina wide variety of monolithic materials with hierarchical porosity composed of a silicic skeleton.The porosity of these materials can be optimized by playing with the nature of the emulsion,the surfactant used, or with the addition of external agents such as salt. By combining these methods,materials with hexagonal mesoporosity have been obtained. Thanks to their silanol-richsurface, these porous materials have been functionalized by post-synthesis grafting of organicmolecules. Therefore, the immobilization of biological entities such as enzymes within the porousstructure has made it possible to use these materials for hydrolysis, synthesis or discolorationreactions in aqueous media in a "green chemistry" approach. Finally, microorganisms were trappedin these porous materials which were covered with a silica shell. Microorganisms can growthere without restriction and their growth is very different from that observed in conventionalcultures. The silica shell formed on the surface is therefore impermeable to the passage of bacteria(micrometric size) but permeable to diffusion of substrates and reagents. This diffusion wasused to carry out cascade enzymatic reactions. These materials are positioned as very promisingbiocatalysts for many applications.

La transformation de la biomasse lignocellulosique requiert des conditions opératoires différentes de celles employées dans les procédés du raffinage et de la pétrochimie. Ainsi, certaines transformations de produits bio-sourcés sont opérées en phase aqueuse et en température (« conditions hydrothermales (HT) » : T > 200°C, eau liquide). Les catalyseurs hétérogènes industriels constitués de supports poreux oxydes comme l’alumine se révèlent alors inadaptés. Des modifications structurales et texturales sont observées induisant des performances catalytiques instables et incompatibles avec une viabilité industrielle d’éventuels procédés. La thèse propose de développer des matériaux catalytiques présentant des propriétés de stabilité hydrothermale adaptées au traitement des nouvelles matières premières que sont la biomasse et ses réactifs dérivés. La stratégie consiste à modifier la surface d’alumine afin de la rendre stable en conditions HT. Cette modification de surface est effectuée avec l’aide d’additifs organiques (carbone, polyols) ou inorganiques (silicium).Il est montré que l’alumine devient stable lors de la saturation de certains hydroxyles de sa surface localisés spécifiquement sur les faces basales des cristallites élémentaires. Des stratégies sont développées pour de déposer sélectivement du carbone ou du silicium sur ces sites en question. Une très bonne stabilité HT est ainsi obtenue avec un taux de recouvrement de la surface proche de 20% seulement. Une phase métallique est ensuite déposée sur les matériaux stabilisés et leurs performances catalytiques sont évaluées pour l’hydrogénolyse du glycérol / Biomass transformation reactions are carried under very different conditions from those used in petroleum industry. Some bio-products are transformed in aqueous phase underhigh temperatures (hydrothermal conditions). Heterogeneous catalysts are most likely made with a porous oxide like alumina witch is not suited for such conditions. Its textural and structural properties are modified during the treatment making the material incompatible with any process. The aim of the thesis is to develop new catalytic materials with hydrothermal stability properties adapted to the treatment of biomass products. The strategy is to modify alumina surface in order to make it insensitive to water during a hydrothermal treatment. The surface modification is done with inorganic (silicon) and organic (carbon, polyols) additives.We show here that alumina is stable only if some specific hydroxyls located in basal surfaces of crystallites are saturated. We develop strategy to selectively cover those sites with carbon or silica. A very good hydrothermal stability is obtained with a surface coverage close to 20% only. Then, a metal phase is deposited on the stabilized supports and catalytic performances of the materials are evaluated through the glycerol hydrogenolysis reaction

We study systems of n dimensional diffusions whose drift and dispersion coefficients depend only on the relative ranking of the processes. We consider the question of how long it takes for a particle to go from one rank to another. It is argued that as n gets large, the distribution of particles satisfies a Porous Medium Equation. Using this, we derive a deterministic limit for the system of particles. This limit allows for direct calculation of the properties of the rank traversal time. The results are extended to the case of asymmetrically colliding particles. These models are of interest in the study of financial markets and economic inequality. In particular, we derive limits for the performance of some Functionally Generated Portfolios originating from Stochastic Portfolio Theory.

In this study SBA-15 mesoporous silica template was synthesized and used as a sacrificial template in the preparation of ordered mesoporous carbon material. A chemical vapour deposition (CVD) technique using LPG or alternatively sucrose, pyrolyzed upon a mesoporous Si matrix were used to produce nanostructured ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC) with graphitic character after removing the Si template. The sucrose method was found to be a suitable route for preparing OMC. The OMC was used as a conductive three dimensional porous support for depositing catalytic nanophase Pt metal. Deposition of Pt nanoparticles on OMC was accomplished using a CVD method with Pt(acac)2 as a precursor. The synthesized nano-composite materials were characterized by several techniques such as, HRTEM, HRSEM, EDS, XRD, BET, TGA, FT-IR and CV.

Metal-organic frameworks are a new class of porous materials that have potential applications in gas storage, separations, catalysis, sensors, non-linear optics, displays and electroluminescent devices. They are synthesized in a "building-block" approach by self-assembly of metal or metal-oxide vertices interconnected by rigid linker molecules. The highly ordered nature of MOF materials and the ability to tailor the framework's chemical functionality by modifying the organic ligands give the materials great potential for high efficiency adsorbents. In particular, MOFs that selectively adsorb CO₂ over N₂, and CH₄ are very important because they have the potential to reduce carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants and substantially diminish the cost of natural gas production. Despite their importance, MOFs that show high selective gas adsorption behavior are not so common. Development of MOFs for gas adsorption applications has been hindered by the lack of fundamental understanding of the interactions between the host-guest systems. Knowledge of how adsorbates bind to the material, and if so where and through which interaction, as well as how different species in adsorbed mixture compete and interact with the adsorption sites is a prerequisite for considering MOFs for adsorptive gas separation applications. In this work, we seek to understand the role of structural features (such as pore sizes, open metal site, functionalized ligands, pore volume, electrostatics) on the adsorptive separation of CO₂, CO and N₂ in prototype MOFs with the help of molecular modeling studies (GCMC simulations). Our simulation results suggest that the suitable MOFs for CO₂ adsorption and separation should have small size, open metal site, or large pore volume with functionalized groups. Some of the experimental challenges in the MOF based adsorbents for CO₂ capture include designing MOFs with smaller pores with/without open metal sites. Constructing such type of porous MOFs can lead to greater CO₂ capacities and adsorption selectivities over mixtures of CH₄ or N₂. Therefore, in the second project, we focused on design and development of small pore MOFs with/without open metal sites for adsorptive separation of carbon dioxide from binary mixtures of methane and nitrogen. We have synthesized and characterized several new MOFs (single ligand and mixed ligand MOFs) using different characterization techniques like single-crystal X-ray diffraction, powder X-ray diffraction, TGA, BET, gravimetric adsorption and examined their applicability in CO₂/N₂ and CO₂/CH₄ mixture separations. Our findings from this study suggest that further, rational development of new MOF compounds for CO₂ capture applications should focus on enriching open metal sites, increasing the pore volume, and minimizing the size of large pores. Flue gas streams and natural gas streams containing CO₂ are often saturated by water and its presence greatly reduces the CO₂ adsorption capacities and selectivities. So, in the third project, we investigated the structural stability of the developed MOFs by measuring water vapor adsorption isotherms on them at different humid conditions to understand which type of coordination environment in MOFs can resist humid environments. The results of this study suggest that MOFs connected through nitrogen-bearing ligands show greater water stability than materials constructed solely through carboxylic acid groups.

No description available.

Study of Ordered Macroporous Polymer Films by Templating Breath Figures Lulu Song 193 pages Directed by Dr. Mohan Srinivasarao Macroporous films with highly ordered pore patterns have many potential applications. Some examples include microstructured electrode surfaces, photonic band gap materials and filters for cell sorting and bio-interfaces. In this dissertation we discuss a moist-casting method to prepare hexagonally-ordered macroporous films with pore sizes in the range of sub-micron to several microns, where condensed water droplets (breath figures) work as templates. Compared with other templating methods, this one is fast and simple. Well-ordered porous films can be obtained in tens of seconds and the pore size can be easily tailored and dynamically controlled by adjusting the casting conditions. More importantly, there is no need to remove the templates; water droplets just evaporate when the casting processes are finished. This study was carried out with the intention of characterizing the structures, understanding film-formation processes and exploring special properties and possible applications. For the structural characterization, film morphology was studied in detail by normal optical microscopy and laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM). Several interesting features have been revealed. Meanwhile, the degree of the order of the porous structures were characterized both in real space via Voronoi diagram and bond-orientational correlation function, and in reciprocal space via Fraunhofer diffraction pattern. To further understand the mechanism, the evaporation of the polymer solutions during the film formation was studied by monitoring their mass over time. Besides, the evolution of breath figures formed on the evaporating polymer solutions was in-situ recorded via a high-speed camera coupled to an optical microscope. Combined with the information on the film structures obtained via LSCM, explanations for some detailed features have been attempted. Wetting property of these films was studied in some detail. The films exhibited lotus effect, mimicking natural non-wetting surfaces. To improve the solvent stability and mechanical properties of the macroporous films for possible applications, crosslinking of the polymer matrix was tried by heating. Crosslinked structures with hexagonal arrays of cone-like air holes were obtained, which might find use as micron-sized beakers for small-quantity analysis.

Porous carbon derived from an inorganic silicon carbide (SiC) precursor, termed SiC-derived carbon, is an attractive material for electrochemical energy storage applications, including electrodes for electrical double layer capacitors (EDLCs). The objective of this thesis is to investigate the effects that the carbide-derived carbon (CDC) microstructure and pore structure have on the energy and power characteristics of the EDLC electrodes. Conventional SiC CDC is produced from non-porous crystalline SiC powder at temperatures above 800 °C. Here we studied the performance of SiC CDCs produced by chlorination at 700-900 °C of an ordered mesoporous SiC precursor, which was synthesized via a 1000 °C pyrolysis of polycarbosilane infiltrated into an SBA-15 silica template having ordered mesopores. The SiC CDC was purified from chlorine impurities by annealing in ammonia. The surface area and pore size of the purified SiC CDC was characterized via N2 and CO2 sorption using density functional theory (DFT) and Brunnauer, Emmet, and Teller (BET) theory. The specific capacitance, power and energy densities were characterized via electrochemical measurements of the SiC CDC electrodes in 1 M tetraethylammonium tetrafluoroborate (TEABF4) acetonitrile solution. The SiC CDC exhibited a specific surface area (SSA) in excess of 2400 m2/g and gravimetric capacitance values of up to ~ 150 F/g, among the highest ever reported for any electrodes in this electrolyte. The ordered mesopores allowed for fast ion transport within each particle, resulting in excellent capacity retention under high current rates and ultra-fast frequency response, thus allowing for extremely high power and energy densities. The best overall performance was achieved in SiC CDC samples chlorinated at the lowest temperature of 700 °C.

The process of fluid injection into granular media is relevant to a wide number of applications such as enhanced oil recovery, grouting, and the construction of permeable reactive barriers. The response of the subsurface is dependent on multiple factors such as in-situ stresses, fluid properties, flow rate, and formation type. Based on these conditions a variety of response mechanisms can be initiated ranging from simple porous infiltration to hydraulic fracturing. Currently, the mechanics of fluid injection into competent rock are well understood and can be sufficiently modeled using linear elastic fracture mechanics. Because the grains in rock formations are individually cemented together, they exhibit cohesion and are able to support tensile stresses. The linear elastic method assumes tensile failure due to stress concentrations at the fracture tip. A fracture propagates when the stress intensity factor exceeds the material toughness (Detournay, 1988) However, understanding fluid injection in cohesionless granular media presents a much larger obstacle. Currently, no theoretical models have been developed to deal with granular media displacements due to fluid injection. Difficulty arises from the complexity of fluid rheology and composition used in engineering processes, the strong coupling between fluid flow and mechanical deformation, the non-linear response of subsurface media, and the multi-scale nature of the problem. The structure of this thesis is intended to first give the reader a basic background of some of the fundamental concepts for non-Newtonian fluid flow in granular media. Fluid properties as well as some interaction mechanisms are described in relation to the injection process. Next, the results from an experimental series of injection tests are presented with a discussion of the failure/flow processes taking place. We developed a novel technique which allows us to visualize the injection process by use of a transparent Hele-Shaw cell. Specifically, we will be using polyacrylamide solutions at a variety of concentrations to study non-Newtonian effects on the response within the Hele-Shaw cell. By performing tests at a range of solution concentrations and injection rates we are to be able to identify a transition from an infiltration dominated flow regime to a fracturing dominated regime.