Patent Application: US-79251797-A

Abstract:
the present invention provides for the regulation of the rate of a chemical reaction within the aqueous micelles within a microemulsion of water in supercritical carbon dioxide . increase in pressure increases the concentration of an ionized reaction component within the reverse micelles , thus increasing the rate of the reaction or allowing the reaction to initiate . similarly , the reaction rate can be slowed by decreasing the pressure , thus decreasing the amount of water and ionized components in the reverse micelles . decrease in the pressure below a critical level results in the reaction stopping when the concentration of a ionized reaction component falls to a sufficiently low level . advantages of the present methods of regulating reactions in microemulsions in supercritical carbon dioxide include the speed with which pressure can be changed , the potential for the production of very small and uniform particles and the nontoxic nature of the water and carbon dioxide portions of the microemulsions .

Description:
the properties of co 2 are much different from those of water or nonpolar organic solvents . unlike water , co 2 has no dipole moment . even when highly compressed , co 2 has far weaker van der waals forces than hydrocarbon solvents , making it more like a fluorocarbon or fluoroether . because of its weak solvent strength , either lipophilic or hydrophilic phases are often insoluble in liquid co 2 . it is desirable to form dispersions of either hydrophilic or lipophilic phases in a co 2 - continuous phase . such dispersions can be stabilized with surfactants containing &# 34 ; co 2 philic &# 34 ; tails , such as fluorinated compounds . recently , an organic latex , polymethylmethacrylate , has been synthesized in co 2 with a fluorocarbon stabilizer , demonstrating the ability to disperse an organic phase ( 2 ). however , techniques for the dispersion of water into co 2 as a microemulsion have been elusive , despite attempts with more than 150 surfactants in several laboratories during the last decade ( 6 , 7 ). surfactants for conventional water - in - oil microemulsions have been described , including those for supercritical fluid alkane solvents ( 8 - 10 ). however , little has been published about designing surfactants with the proper balance of molecular interactions for the co 2 - water interface . the extraction of a moderately polar interfacially active dye , thymol blue , into reverse micelles in co 2 with a newly synthesized fluorinated sulfosuccinate surfactant has been described ( 11 ). the amount of water , if any , present in the micelles was unknown , because the dye is soluble in water - free reverse micelles ( 12 ). in contrast to thymol blue , proteins are not soluble unless the reverse micelle cores are swollen with water to form microemulsion droplets . recently , harrison et al . ( 13 ) showed enhanced dissolution of water into co 2 with a fluorocarbon - hydrocarbon hybrid surfactant . however , the nature of the water was not studied , because the surfactant was rapidly hydrolyzed ( 13 ). as used herein , micelles or reverse micelles refer to the tiny droplets of aqueous phase , preferably stabilized by a surfactant with a hydrophilic headgroup and a co 2 - philic tail , within the continuous supercritical co 2 phase . the term closed system refers to the system in which the water - in - supercritical co 2 microemulsion is placed . its closed nature allows control of pressure ( and temperature ) within the system . extremely few lipophilic or hydrophilic surfactants are soluble in co 2 . the surfactants used in the present invention are active at the fluorocarbon - water interface ( and have been used in blood substitutes ) given that the weak van der waals forces of co 2 match those of the fluorocarbons . the exemplified surfactant is an ammonium carboxylate perfluoropolyether ( pfpe ) surfactant , cf 3 o ( cf 2 cf ( cf 3 ) o ) 3 cf 2 coo - nh 4 + , ( 14 ). pfpe is commercially available in the cooh form ( dupont ) and has an average molecular weight of 740 . pfpe carboxylate surfactants with molecular weights from 2500 to 7500 are soluble in co 2 at pressures below 300 bar ( 15 ), but their abilities to form microemulsions have not been reported . the biological inertness of pfpe surfactants complements the nontoxic nature of co 2 . while specific teachings are provided herein for a particular suitable surfactant , namely pfpe , other surfactants meeting the criteria set forth herein can be used for stabilizing water core micelles in supercritical co 2 . with the exemplified pfpe surfactant , the density of the co 2 is a key variable controlled by the pressure within the reaction chamber . the size of the water core limits the size of the monomer pool in a polymerization reaction and thus , the size of the polymer molecule formed . sufficient water will be present within the micelle to allow ionization of monomer , catalyst , etc ., when the density of the carbon dioxide is greater than about 13 moles / liter and up to about 17 moles / liter , preferably from 12 . 5 to 13 . 5 moles / liter , and more preferably from about 12 . 8 to about 13 . 2 moles / liter . pressure can be regulated within the chamber , using , e . g ., a reciprocating pump and a co 2 source such as a tank of compressed carbon dioxide . the water cores of the present water - in - supercritical carbon dioxide microemulsions wherein the carbon dioxide density is about 13 moles / liter , contain about 2000 - 4000 water molecules per micelle . this relatively small number of water molecules per micelle responds dramatically to pressure within the reaction chamber . because pressure can be increased or decreased very quickly , reactions can be started or stopped with a high degree of precision and without &# 34 ; tailing &# 34 ; of continued reaction . thus , the present methods of pressure - regulated polymerization allow the creation of low molecular weight , but highly cross - linked polymers . in the exemplified pfpe surfactant stabilized system , the carbon dioxide density of about 13 moles / liter corresponds to a pressure of about 75 bars at a temperature of 35 ° c . the polymers and nanocomposites made in the present methods are useful in the dental industry as high strength fillers , in chromatography as solid supports , in the pharmaceutical industry as vehicles for controlled drug delivery , and in other industrial applications including pigments , paints , and film coatings , among others . the present invention is distinguished from that of u . s . pat . no . 5 , 312 , 882 , desimone et al ., issued may 17 , 1994 , in several ways . first , the present invention provides reactions carried out in the aqueous cores of the micelles , the reactants ( and / or catalyst and / or reaction initiator ) are hydrophilic and ionizable , and the amount of water in the micellar cores is regulated by the pressure and / or the co 2 density . by contrast , the desimone patent teaches a hydrophobic monomer for polymerization as one aspect of the invention and it does not teach any aqueous phase in the system . to prepare a microemulsion , water was added to a 1 . 4 wt % solution of pfpe in co 2 , yielding a water concentration of 0 . 48 wt %. phase boundaries were determined for a given solution of constant composition with a 28 - ml stainless - steel variable - volume view cell containing a sapphire window ( 10 ). at high pressures , single - phase microemulsions are optically transparent . as the pressure is lowered at constant temperature , the loss in density and hence &# 34 ; solvent strength &# 34 ; of co 2 causes the solution to become turbid . table 1 lists the cloud - point pressure and corresponding pure co 2 density as a function of temperature . the number of moles of water - to - surfactant , w 0 , is calculated by subtracting the independently known amount of water soluble in pure co 2 without surfactant from the total amount of water . the total number of moles of water per mole of surfactant was 14 for all temperatures . a w 0 of 10 suggests that some type of aggregated water domain is present , because a single surfactant molecule would not be hydrated by so many water molecules . this level of solubilization of water is unprecedented . to show that such a domain truly exists and to characterize its nature , the results of four different spectroscopic analyses are presented herein . fourier transform infrared ( ftir ) spectroscopy has been used to characterize water environments in microemulsions , specifically interfacial &# 34 ; bound &# 34 ; water close to the surfactant head groups , and &# 34 ; bulk - like &# 34 ; water in the droplet core ( 16 ). d 2 o is used in ftir spectroscopy because the o -- h stretching bands are obscured by co 2 and pfpe absorptions ( 17 ). the microemulsion solutions were prepared in a miniature stainless steel spectroscopic cell ( 2 . 8 mm path length ) with caf 2 windows ( 10 mm thick ) ( 17 ). the pfpe / d 2 o / co 2 mixtures were prepared at 31 ° c . at similar conditions as the phase behavior measurements described herein . the ir spectra were recorded on a nicolet 730 interferometer with an mct detector ( 2 cm - 1 resolution ). fig1 shows the asymmetric and symmetric bands for free d 2 o dispersed in a saturated solution of co 2 ( trace a , 2761 and 2653 cm - 1 ). a dramatic effect is seen upon addition of pfpe to the solution ( trace b ) with the appearance of a large broad band centered at 2535 cm - 1 . this low frequency broad band can be assigned to highly hydrogen bonded water in the microemulsion core because the o -- h ( or o -- d ) stretching frequency is known to decrease in proportion to the hydrogen bond energy . the o -- d stretching frequency approaches that of pure bulk d 2 o at ˜ 2500 cm - 1 . the second water environment in the microemulsion structure , interfacial water , is assigned to the shoulder at 2697 cm - 1 ( trace b ). this intermediate frequency , between those of free and bulklike d 2 o , might be expected from the more strained interfacial environment for hydrogen bond formation . spectral shifts are measured with the spectroscopic probe methyl orange ( ch 3 ) 2 nc 6 h 4 n ═ nc 6 h 4 so 3 na !. as the local environment of the probe becomes more polar , the absorbance maximum λ max shifts to longer wavelengths . methyl orange in methanol is introduced into a stainless - steel cell with two sapphire windows , and the solvent is fully evaporated . the pfpe surfactant ( 0 . 026m ) and various amounts of water are loaded into the cell . the spectra obtained at 276 bar are shown in fig2 for various values of w 0 . benchmarks are placed at the top border of the figure for λ max of ( surfactant - free ) solvents including methanol ( 421 nm ), water ( 464 nm ), and aqueous carbonic acid ( 502 nm ). as w 0 increases , there is a pronounced shift in λ max indicating that methyl orange resides in a highly polar aqueous environment . this result confirms the existence of &# 34 ; bulk - like &# 34 ; water seen with ftir spectra . the shoulder in the spectra at 540 nm indicates the presence of an acidic environment due to carbonic acid . given a stable aqueous environment within co 2 , solubilization of a model protein , acrylodan - labeled bovine serum albumin ( bsa - ac ) is now examined . ( 18 , 19 ). this particular system is chosen because bsa is moderately large ( 67 , 000 daltons ) and the strong ac fluorescence provides a measure of both bsa conformation and concentration in solution ( 20 ). experiments are conducted with stirred high pressure optical cells and equipment described previously ( 20 ). excitation was at 360 nm , and excitation and emission bandpasses were 8 nm . the pfpe concentration was always 1 . 4wt % as in the phase equilibria measurements . bsa - ac was added as a solid to produce a concentration of 100 nm ( 6 . 7 μg / ml ) based on the volume of the cell . water was added with a micropipet prior charging with co 2 . there was essentially no detectable residual emission of pure supercritical co 2 . weak fluorescence at ˜ 390 nm was observed in a binary mixture of co 2 and water ( fig3 a ) with the addition of pfpe to form a microemulsion ( w 0 = 9 ) the bsa - ac dissolves and the emission is substantial ( fig3 b , --). for comparison , we show spectra of native bsa - ac ( 19 , 21 ) (----), and bsa - ac in bis ( 2 - ethylhexyl ) sodium sulfosuccinate ( aot ) water - in - oil microemulsions formed in liquid n - heptane at w 0 = 20 (--. .--) ( 21 ). for convenience , each spectrum is normalized to the maximum of the bsa - ac / pfpe / water / co 2 fluorescence . the blue - shifted emission band in fig3 a relative to native bsa - ac ( fig3 b , ---) is consistent with a small amount of bsa - ac suspended into wet co 2 , and with an ac residue experiencing a nonpolar environment . exposure of the ac residue to co 2 indicates a conformational change in the suspended bsa . upon forming a water - in - co 2 microemulsion with pfpe , the bsa - ac fluorescence is very strong and is similar to that of native bsa - ac in buffer at ph 7 . 0 . after recovery , the bsa - ac is still recognized by the anti - bsa antibody . together these results show that bsa - ac is solubilized within the aqueous microemulsion droplets in an environment similar to that of bulk buffered water and remains biologically active . by contrast , bsa - ac in aot microemulsions at high water loadings ( fig3 b , --.-----.---) is conformationally altered with respect to native bsa - ac . finally , it is estimated that about 9 % of the total bsa - ac is encapsulated within the pfpe microemulsion droplets . this estimate is derived from a calibration based on bsa - ac in liquid water . it should be considered a lower limit as the ac quantum yield within microemulsions at all w 0 is somewhat less than that in liquid water ( 21 ). the remainder of the bsa - ac is likely at the bottom of the vessel . x - band electron paramagnetic resonance ( epr ) of 4 - hydroxy 2 , 2 , 6 , 6 - tetramethyl piperidino - 1 - oxy ( 4 - hydroxy - tempo ) was used to probe the local environment of the pfpe assemblies . the water to 4 - hydroxy tempo molar ration was ˜ 1700 : 1 . spectra were recorded in a high - pressure recirculating cell ( 22 ) at a microwave power of 10 mw , modulation frequency of 100 khz , and a 1 . 0 g modulation amplitude . at low co 2 density (& lt ; 13m ), nitrogen hyperfine splitting constants ( called a n ) for 4 - hydroxy - tempo in co 2 solutions containing water and pfpe are much higher than those in co 2 alone , indicating a local environment around the probe that is much more polar than pure co 2 ( fig4 ). the epr spectral shapes reflect highly anisotropic motion , as evidenced by the diminished high - field peak . both the splitting constants and spectral shapes show that pfpe is present as an organized assembly . in contrast , the motion of the probe in water - saturated co 2 ( without surfactant ) is isotropic . at co 2 densities & gt ; 13m , the apparent a n in the surfactant solution drops to near that in neat co 2 . thus , the observed a n predominantly results from 4 - hydroxy - tempo molecules found outside of the microemulsion droplets , consistent with the shapes of the spectra . this drop in a n is not the result of a loss of polar environment , but rather results from the surprising and rapid reduction of the nitroxide by reaction with nh 4 + within the polar microemulsion core . the reduction in dense co 2 - surfactant solutions follows pseudo first - order kinetics with an apparent rate constant , k = 6 . 8 × 10 - 4 s - 1 . for comparison , k is 2 . 0 × 10 - 5 s - 1 for solutions of 4 - hydroxy tempo in trifluoroacetic acid and ammonium acetate , ph 3 . 0 . the dramatic enhancement of reduction rate constant is attributed , in part , to a high degree of nitroxide orientation in the restricted environment of the microemulsion core . the strong sensitivity of the reaction rate to co 2 density is due to the requirement that a water pool be present before significant ionization and subsequent reduction reaction can occur . the ftir , ultraviolet - visible absorbance , fluorescence and epr data confirm the existence of an aqueous domain in co 2 with a polarity approaching that of bulk water . thus , not only do pfpe - based microemulsions offer a thermodynamically stable aqueous domain in a co 2 phase , but they simultaneously offer a microenvironment that does not significantly alter the conformation of sequestered proteins . the successful formation of a microemulsion with pfpe is attributed to the weak van der waals forces of the surfactant tail , the strong tendency of the ionic head group to leave co 2 , the cf 3 branching and the small size of the head group which favor bending of the interface about water , and the low solubility of the fluoroether tails in water . given these guidelines , the skilled artisan can synthesize additional surfactants for new environmentally benign applications in dense co 2 . for the polymerization of cyclohexyl vinyl ether , a mixture of 1 . 0 mm pfpe perfluoroether surfactant , 15 mm h 2 o , 0 . 1 mm anthracene , 0 . 05 wt % uv9310c ( ge silicone ), 0 . 5 % cyclohexyl vinyl ether is placed in a pressurizable chamber such as that described hereinabove , and co 2 is then pumped into the chamber to a pressure of 80 bars at 35 ° c . this pressure allows the incorporation of sufficient water molecules into the cores of the micelles so that the cyclohexyl vinyl ether monomers are ionized , and the reaction can proceed , in the presence of ultraviolet light , for example , from a broad - band mercury light . experiments were carried out to determine whether an ionic head group was necessary for a reaction to be run in the reverse micelle system . a surfactant was synthesized that contained the nitroxide , which formerly acted as a probe , as the head group instead of the ammonium ion . typically 5 mmol of tempol was dissolved in 10 ml absolute ether in a 100 ml flask over an ice bath with constant stirring , 6 mmol of triethylamine ( tea ) and 6 mmol of pentadecafluorooctanoyl chloride were added , the ice bath was removed and the solution was stirred for two hours . vacuum filtration was used to remove the tea hcl salt , the solvent was evaporated and a red , waxy substance remained . the compound was purified using column chromatography with chloroform as the solvent . typical yields were 80 - 85 %. the solubility of this spin labeled surfactant was established in supercritical carbon dioxide . fig5 shows the solubility of the surfactant at a concentration of 0 . 006m at three different temperatures . it was then determined that the compound did form reverse micelles in supercritical carbon dioxide . water loadings for 0 . 006m surfactant were ascertained at four different temperatures , and it was found that the surfactant was able to take up significant amounts of water in supercritical carbon dioxide . finally , the reduction of the nitroxide was investigated through electron paramagnetic resonance . it was found that when the nitroxide acted as the head group rather than as a probe , the epr active compound was not reduced to an inactive compound , as seen in the earlier study . epr scans showed no loss of signal with time , at all pressures tested . therefore , an ionic head group , such as the ammonium headgroup is required for the pressure switch to work . all references cited in the present application are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety . the specific examples provided herein are for illustrative purposes and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention as claimed herein . any variations in the exemplified methods which occur to the skilled artisan are intended to fall within the scope of the present invention . table 1______________________________________cloud point pressure for a giventemperature for a microemulsion containing0 . 15 g pfpe , 0 . 052 g water and 10 . 4 g co . sub . 2 . t p co . sub . 2 density (° c .) 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