July 12, 1999

DeSimone's Research Impetus for New Facility

Dr. DeSimone

In April DuPont announced plans to build a $40 million development facility in North Carolina to conduct research on supercritical carbon dioxide as a reaction solvent for producing fluoropolymers associated with DuPont's Teflon brand. The facility is an expansion of research supported by DuPont and conducted by Dr. Joseph DeSimone, the William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Chemical Engineering at NC State University. DeSimone's initial research group at UNC-CH developed the fluoropolymer technology that will be used at the new facility.

DeSimone codirects the Kenan Center for the Utilization of Carbon Dioxide in Manufacturing with Dr. Ruben Carbonell, Heochst Celanese Professor of Chemical Engineering and head of the Department of Chemical Engineering at NC State. The center is a corporate-sponsored research group based jointly at NC State and UNC-CH.

The research conducted at the center explores the uses of supercritical and liquid carbon dioxide in chemical synthesis — the most recent area in carbon dioxide research. Supercritical carbon dioxide, also known as dense-phase carbon dioxide, is widely used in the extraction industry and has replaced conventional methods of extracting substances from many products. The technology is used around the world to extract caffeine from coffee and flavorings from spices and other foods.

The most recent commercial application of carbon dioxide solvent technique is used in the dry cleaning industry. The first carbon dioxide-based dry cleaner opened this year in Wilmington, N.C., under the brand of cleaners known as Hangers. There are currently nine Hangers stores in Wilmington, three in Providence, R.I., and a Hangers industrial cleaning site in the suburbs of Chicago that is focused on cleaning of goods damaged in fires. Several Hangers stores will be opening in the Triangle area later this year.

The advantage of using supercritical and liquid carbon dioxide in the extraction industry, in dry cleaning and in the production of polymers is two-fold ÿ the solvents used in extraction and fluoropolymer production are harmful to the environment and expensive to dispose. In the production of fluoropolymers, supercritical carbon dioxide is advantageous because fluoropolymers dissolve and "swell" better and require less drying time and energy.

DeSimone and researchers at other universities and government labs have developed fluoronated and silicone-based surfactants that can be used in the production of polymers and that have created the potential for using supercritical carbon dioxide for many different polymerization reactions. The new DuPont facility will be a leader in carbon dioxide manufacturing and a model for possible new industries. The DuPont investment in fluoropolymer facilities that will be based on DeSimone's technology will be up to $275 million.

Researchers at the Kenan Center for the Utilization of Carbon Dioxide in Manufacturing continue to find new uses for supercritical carbon dioxide. They are currently working on ways to use these techniques in other areas such as electronics fabrication, manufacture of polymer fibers and thin films and applications of paints and other coatings. DeSimone is joined in these efforts by several faculty from the Departments of Chemical and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at NC State.

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