Frantisek Svec

Facility Director, Organic and Macromolecular Synthesis Facility
fsvec@lbl.gov, 510.486.7964
Research interests
My personal research is focused on two different formats of porous polymer materials, BEADS and MONOLITHS, which can be used in a wide variety of applications such as materials for hydrogen storage, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), capillary electrochromatography (CEC), thin layer chromatography (TLC), matrices for interference-free MALDI TOF MS,  building blocs for lab-on-the-chip, solid-phase extraction, carriers for immobilization of synthetic and natural catalysts, supports for solid-phase organic chemistry, scavengers, and reagents.
Current projects           
  • Nanoporous materials for hydrogen storage
Hydrogen adsorption using nanoporous synthetic polymers is studied. Promising results were obtained during the screening of commercially available porous polymer beads; of the polymers considered, hypercrosslinked Hypersol-Macronet MN200 resin exhibits the highest adsorption capacity for hydrogen. This initial success triggered the development of our own high surface area hypercrosslinked materials. Subjecting gel-type and macroporous vinylbenzyl chloride-based precursors swollen in dichloroethane to a Friedel-Crafts reaction catalyzed by iron trichloride afforded materials with surface areas of 1,930 and 1,300 m2/g respectively as calculated using the BET equation. The former polymer reversibly stores up to 3.8 wt% H2 at a pressure of 4.0 MPa and a temperature of 77.3 K. Further development focuses on nanoporous materials with different chemistries prepared either by direct copolymerization followed by hypercrosslinking or on hypercrosslinked polymers, which pores are coated with the desired functionalities.
  • Thin layers of porous polymer for thin layer separation followed by MALDI TOF MS analysis
Plates for thin layer chromatography (TLC) with an attached layer of porous polymer monolith are prepared on the top of glass plates or MALDI target plates using UV initiated polymerization.  Precise control of the reaction conditions enables the preparation of monolithic layers with a well-defined porous structure that determines the chromatographic performance. Compared to conventional TLC and high-performance TLC using pre-coated layers based on silica, the small layer thickness and absence of any binder is expected to improve both retention characteristics and separation efficiency of the polymer based monolithic thin-layer chromatographic plates during their use for the separation of small molecules, peptides and proteins. Spots of the separated compounds were first detected using typical UV imaging. Since the monolithic thin layers can be also prepared directly on the stainless steel MALDI carrier plate, coupling of the separation in TLC format with MALDI-TOF-MS is also attempted.   Although application of a conventional MALDI matrix facilitated desorption and ionization of peptides and proteins for molecular weight determination of the separated compounds, we are now preparing layers with “built-in” functionalities serving as the nonvolatile matrix. Part of this project is carried out in collaboration with Dr. Rania Bakry, University of Innsbruck, Austria.
  • On chip electrofocusing of biomolecules in monoliths with a nanoscale gradient of functionality
This project attempts to create a new set of “orthogonal” electrofocusing tools for multidimensional analysis of biopolymers by combining various forms of field-gradient focusing with monoliths containing nanoscale gradient of functionality. Adopting a 2D platform, which utilizes a pair of novel electrofocusing techniques that are based on monolithic technology including gradient of functionality, can circumvent shortcomings of the current techniques.  The use of monoliths allows to design a platform, which has many of the advantages of chromatographic operation, e.g., automation, while the use of novel in situ fixed nanogradients permits implementation of a proposed new class of equilibrium gradient methods on this platform.  This, in turn, opens up the possibility of running two dimensions of separation simultaneously. Collaborative project with Prof Cornelius F. Ivory, Washington State University.
Selected publications (out of 330)
  1. Germain J., Hradil J., Fréchet J.M.J., Svec F. High surface area nanoporous polymers for reversible hydrogen storage. Chem. Mater. 18, 4430-4435, 2006.
  2. Svec F., Huber C.G., Monolithic materials:  Promises, challenges, achievements. Anal. Chem. 78, 2100-2107, 2006.
  3. Sáfrány A., Beiler B., László K., Svec F., Control of pore formation in macroporous polymers synthesized by single-step g-radiation-initiated polymerization and cross-linking. Polymer 46, 2862-2871, 2005.
  4. Hilder E. F., Svec F., Fréchet J. M. J., Latex-functionalized monolithic columns for the separation of carbohydrates by micro anion-exchange chromatography, J. Chromatogr. A 1053, 101-106, 2004.
  5. Peterson D. S., Hilder E.F., Luo Q., Svec F., Fréchet J. M. J., Porous polymer monolith for matrix-free laser desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry of small molecules. Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 18, 1504-1512, 2004
  6. Peterson D. S., Rohr T., Svec F., Fréchet J. M. J., Dual-function microanalytical device by in-situ photolithographic grafting of porous polymer monolith: integrating solid phase extraction and enzymatic digestion for peptide mass mapping. Anal. Chem. 75, 5328-5335, 2003.
  7. Rohr T., Hilder E.F., Donovan J.J., Svec F., Fréchet J. M. J., Photografting and the control of surface chemistry in three-dimensional porous polymer monoliths. Macromolecules 36, 1677-1684, 2003.
  8. Petro M.,Svec F., Fréchet J. M. J, Monodisperse hydrolyzed poly(glycidyl methacrylate-co-ethylene dimethacrylate) beads as a stationary phase for normal-phase HPLC. Anal. Chem. 69, 3131-3139, 1997.
  9. Svec F., Fréchet J.M.J., New designs of macroporous polymers and supports: from separation to biocatalysis, Science, 273, 205-211, 1996.
  10. Svec, F. and Fréchet, J.M.J.  Continuous rods of macroporous polymer as high-performance liquid chromatography separation media.  Anal. Chem. 54, 820-822, 1992.
  11. Svec, F.; Hradil, J.; Coupek, J. and Kalal, J.  Reactive Polymers I.  Macroporous methacrylate copolymers containing epoxy groups.  Angew. Makromol. Chem. 48, 135-143, 1975.  
Education
1965    B.S., Institute of Chemical Technology, Prague, Czech Republic
1969    Ph.D. in polymer chemistry, Institute of Chemical Technology, Prague
Past professional positions
1969 - 1976—Institute of Chemical Technology, Prague, Assistant Professor
1971 - 1972—University of Karlsruhe, Germany, Visiting scientist
1976 - 1992—Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Scientific Secretary & Technology Transfer Manager.
1992 - 1996     Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, Faculty
1997—University of California, Berkeley. Currently: Visiting Scholar
2000—E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lead Scient
University of Innsbruck, Austria. Visiting Professor of Analytical Chemistry
Links             
http://www.casss.org/
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/76510662