The Molecular Foundry - Organic and Macromolecular Synthesis - Staff

Frantisek Svec

Facility Director, Organic and Macromolecular Synthesis Facility

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. These applications include:

nanoporous materials for gas separation hydrogen storage
superhydrophobic polymer surfaces
high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)
thin layer chromatography (TLC) combined with MS detection
building blocs for lab-on-a-chip
carriers for immobilization of synthetic and natural catalysts

Current projects

Nanoporous materials for hydrogen storage
The use of hydrogen as a fuel has been suggested as means to decrease both oil dependency and greenhouse gas emissions. However, in order for this to happen a number of significant technological hurdles must be overcome. One such hurdle is the development of safe and compact high-capacity storage systems for molecular hydrogen.
- Nanoporous Polymers for Hydrogen Storage
  The current focus of the US Department of Energy (DOE) Hydrogen Storage activities is to create a system enabling to carry about 4 kg hydrogen on-board a vehicle affording a driving range of at least 250 miles. The current target set by DOE requires the development of materials able to store 6 wt% of hydrogen by the year 2010. A wide variety of approaches including carbon nanostructures, graphite and activated carbon, metal/carbon nanostructures, carbon aerogels, metal-organic frameworks, and high-capacity metal hydrides, are explored within the framework of this project. Learn more
  -Frantisek Svec, Jean M.J. Fréchet, and Jonathan Germain
Thin layers of porous polymer for thin layer separation followed by MALDI TOF MS analysis
- Monolithic porous polymer layer for the separation of peptides and proteins using thin-layer chromatography coupled with MALDI- TOF-MS
  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. Learn more
  - Rania Bakry, Günther K. Bonn, Dieudonne Mair, and Frantisek Svec
Superhydrophobic polymer surfaces
- Porous Polymer Coatings: a Versatile Approach to Superhydrophobic Surfaces
  Superhydrophobic surfaces, i.e. surfaces possessing high advancing water contact angle and low water contact angle hysteresis, have recently attracted significant attention because of their unique water-repellent and self-cleaning properties and their potential for practical applications ranging from biotechnology to self-cleaning commodity materials… However, many of the techniques for the preparation of superhydrophobic surfaces described in the literature involve multistep procedures and sometimes harsh conditions, or specialized reagents and equipment. Many of the methods are expensive and only applicable to small flat surfaces or specific materials. As a result, practical applications of such functional materials have not been fully realized and there is a clear need for an inexpensive and broadly applicable approach towards superhydrophobic coatings. Learn more

Selected publications (out of 370)

Levkin P.A., Svec F., Fréchet J.M.J., Porous polymer coatings: a versatile approach to superhydrophobic surfaces. Adv. Funct. Mater. 19, 1993-1998, 2009.
Nischang I., Svec F., Fréchet J.M.J., Downscaling limits and confinement effects in the miniaturization of porous polymer monoliths in narrow bore capillaries. Anal. Chem. 81, 2009
Mair D.A., Schwei T., Dinio T., Fréchet J.M.J, Svec F. Use of photopatterned porous polymer monoliths as passive micromixers to enhance mixing efficiency for on-chip labeling reactions. Lab Chip 9, 877 – 883, 2009.
Germain J., Fréchet J.M.J., Svec F., Preparation of size-selective nanoporous polymer networks of aromatic rings: potential adsorbents for hydrogen storage. Chem. Mater. 20, 7069-7076, 2008.
Bakry B., Bonn G. K., Mair D. A., Svec F., Monolithic porous polymer layer for the separation of peptides and proteins using thin-layer chromatography coupled with MALDI- TOF-MS, Anal. Chem. 79, 486-493, 2007.

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, Facility Director
2003-2006—University of Innsbruck, Austria. Visiting Professor of Analytical Chemistry

Awards

1986 Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences Award
1988 Czech National Prize
2003 President of the California Separation Science Society
2005 Journal of Chromatography Top Cited Article Award
2005 M.J.E. Golay Award and Medal in Chromatography
2005 EAS Award for Achievements in Separation Science
2006 Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy, Umea University, Sweden
2008 ACS Award in Chromatography
2009 Dal Nogare Award

Links

International Separation Science Society
Journal of Separation Science
Frantisec Svec's Publications