Chemistry Colloquium

The guest speaker for the February 4th Chemistry & Biochemistry Colloquium will be Dr. Manar Alherech from the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL). Title: Chromatography without packing material: Modeling and performing separations with liquid-liquid chromatography

Abstract:

What if chromatography didn't require silica, C18, or any solid support? Liquid-liquid chromatography (LLC) achieves separations using only two immiscible liquid phases, eliminating the stationary solid phase that defines conventional chromatography. This approach offers compelling advantages: no irreversible adsorption, complete sample recovery, gentle handling of sensitive compounds, higher loading capacities, easily tunable properties, and straightforward scalability from analytical to industrial scales.

This talk will introduce the principles, history, and applications of LLC from its conceptual origins, through its unique capabilities, to modern implementations. Using examples from our research in biorefinery applications, I'll demonstrate how our work in computational modeling enables rational design of LLC separations, including recent advances in multi-zone configurations that allow continuous operation. The aim of this talk is to show how combining experimental measurements with predictive models transforms LLC from an art into a systematic engineering tool and to reveal why LLC offers unique solutions to challenging separation problems.