Description
The Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) manages the basic research investment for the U.S. Air Force (USAF). As a part of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), AFOSRs technical experts foster and fund research within the Air Force Research Laboratory, universities, and industry laboratories to ensure the transition of research results to support USAF needs. AFOSR announces a fiscal year 2011 competition for research to promote and sustain university research and education focused on small molecule activation chemistry and related technologies. The program description is found at the end of this announcement text. It is expected that multiple awards will be made. AFOSR is seeking unclassified, fundamental research proposals that do not contain proprietary information. It is anticipated that the awards will be made in the form of grants. AFOSR reserves the right to select and fund for award all, some, or none of the proposals in response to this announcement. AFOSR will not issue paper copies of this announcement. AFOSR reserves the right to select and fund for award all, some, or none of the proposals in response to this announcement. AFOSR provides no funding for direct reimbursement of proposal development costs. Any material submitted in response to this BAA will not be returned. Nature uses simple building blocks to construct highly complex, multi-scale materials in highly specific processes that have evolved over thousands of millennia. Both natural and man-made materials share a common set of basic elements as their principal building blocks [i.e., carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen]. Even though research has revealed much about how nature activates these ubiquitous small molecules for reaction, their use to construct materials in synthetically productive ways is far from well-developed. For example, ammonia is prepared from atmospheric dinitrogen in the highly engineered Haber-Bosch process that requires high temperatures and pressures and a heterogeneous catalyst. Since the initial discovery and later development of the process in 1918 and 1931, respectively, few advances have been made that allow for selective activation of dinitrogen. However, recent biomimetic-driven research has provided basic understanding of how metal centers activate this stable diatomic molecule and suggest that room-temperature, low-pressure catalytic processes can be created that use dinitrogen to prepare useful materials, and this represents an incredible opportunity. Similarly, exploratory research aimed at selective activation of other small molecules (i.e., H2, CO, CO2) has advanced the state of catalysis significantly. For example, there is great interest in understanding how to use carbon dioxide as a feedstock in green processes and as a carbon source for liquid fuels. Even though the chemistry of nitrogen and sulfur oxides has been extensively studied, the primarily driver behind this research has been to understand the effects of these compounds and their reaction products on atmospheric and ground water pollution, high temperature exhaust, and high energy density material performance. Basic exploratory research that examines how simple small molecule building blocks can be activated for highly selective reactions and used for synthetically useful purposes is fragmented at best and is generally lacking in many cases. Creation of new synthetic methodologies based on small molecule activation would create opportunities for material development from cheap, readily available, and renewable feedstocks. The focus of this research program is to develop the mechanistic understanding of catalytic processes that activate small inorganic compounds (e.g., nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, sulfur, silicon, boron, aluminum, phosphorus, carbon and their oxides and hydrides) to do synthetically useful chemistry between themselves and with carbon sources. Catalytic homogeneous processes that lead to products under mild reaction conditions (low temperature and pressure) are preferred. The research should have broad relevance to Air Force interests; chemistry that leads to functional compounds, liquid and solid fuels and propellants, and high energy density compounds is of special interest. This frontier research should push scientific boundaries of what can be accomplished and transform ways in which small molecules are currently used. It would be useful to contact one of the program managers before submitting a proposal.