News

“Fresh Scientist” opens door to new market for sugar

Media Release, Tuesday 26 August 2003

A University of Melbourne chemist has helped develop a sugar-based artificial mineral that could sponge up oil spills and replace cyanide in gold mining.

Mick Moylan, a research chemist and PhD student at the University of Melbourne, is helping University colleagues develop a new class of materials that could spawn an industry for custom catalysts, molecular sieves and materials for nanotechnology. Their latest invention was made almost by accident.

"I started with chemicals derived from sugar cane and fruit pectins, and metals including cobalt and zinc and discovered that I'd made crystals with microscopic pores that are less than a millionth of a millimetre wide," says Moylan.

Moylan is one of 16 winners of Fresh Science, a national program to bring public attention to the remarkable unsung achievements of young Australian scientists. He presented his research to the public for the first time this week at the Melbourne Museum.

Small crystals, big potential
Moylan has been testing the ability of these crystals to suck up pollution. The pores in the crystals are about the same size as some common environmental contaminants. Early tests indicate the crystals can act like sponges to absorb some oily chemicals and corrosives into the tiny pores.

The materials are made by treating some sugar derivatives with metal salts. The result is similar to a scaffold where steel rods are held together by joints. At the molecular level, the metal atoms form the joints and sugar derivatives form the rods.

“Sugar derivatives are a natural, renewable, abundant and biodegradable resource. If we can commercially develop useful high technology materials based on sugars, it could open up lucrative new avenues for the sugar industry," says Moylan.

These new compounds could challenge the current use of zeolites in industry. Zeolites are naturally occurring minerals used in many applications including pet litter, animal feed, horticultural applications (soil conditioners and growth media), and wastewater treatment. Synthetic versions are used as catalysts, detergents and molecular sieves.

"Zeolites are hard to customise. The pore size and openings are restricted, and the properties of the pores are difficult to modify,” says Moylan.

"Our new compounds are porous like zeolites, but the pore size, shape and wall linings can be tailor-made, giving us more control over the properties of the material,” he says.

Moylan’s creation of the latest in a new series of compounds called coordination polymers, was reported in the German Chemical Society’s journal Agnewandte Chemie International Edition (2003, 42, 1848-51). Moylan’s supervisors, Professor Richard Robson and Dr Brendan Abrahams discovered and developed this group of special compounds.

Fresh Science is a Science Week event generously supported by the Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training, the Victorian Department of Innovation, Industry & Regional Development, the British Council Australia, and ABC Science. www.freshscience.org