NODRY - Designing green and energy-efficient anti-dewetting protocols for liquid chromatography 

ID Call: ERC-2021-POC ERC Proof of Concept

Sapienza's role in the project: Host Institution

Scientific supervisor for Sapienza: Alberto Giacomello

Department:  Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Project start date: May 1, 2022

Project end date: October 31, 2023

Abstract:

High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) is the leading separation technology in research and industry, which often relies on potentially hazardous and environmentally harmful organic solvents. Water is the ideal environmentally friendly mobile phase, which would open the way to green HPLC. However, its broad applicability is hindered by the phenomenon of dewetting of the stationary phase – the formation of bubbles in the hydrophobic nanoporous material – which makes it unavailable to the substances that need to be separated (“retention loss”). NODRY proposes to develop a unique, experimentally validated simulation testbed based on the PI expertise in theory and simulation of dewetting of nanopores acquired in ERC-StG HyGate. These simulation tools will be deployed to rationally design HPLC protocols capable of eliminating or alleviating the problem of dewetting in most HPLC columns operating with pure water as the solvent, thus opening the way to green and energy-efficient chromatography. Sapienza performs simulations of dewetting in HPLC stationary phases.