Robin D. Rogers

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Abstract

A profile of Robin D. Rogers, Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Center for Green Manufacturing at The University of Alabama.

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Background

Timeline

1975–1978: The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL; Chemistry Honors student; B.S. Degree in Chemistry (ACS); Summa Cum Laude

1978–1982: The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL; Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry; Research Advisor: Professor Jerry L. Atwood

1982 (summer): Visiting Assistant Professor, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL

1982–1996: Assistant, Associate, Full, Presidential Research Professor, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL

1991–1998: Resident Associate Guest, Visiting Scientist, Faculty Appointee, Guest Appointee, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL

1996–: Professor, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL

1998–: Director, The University of Alabama, Center for Green Manufacturing, Tuscaloosa, AL

2000: Visiting Professor, Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France

I was born in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA on March 4, 1957, a few months before Sputnik was launched. When I was 2 years old my family moved to Athens, Alabama where my father worked at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, AL. Growing up about 20 miles from Huntsville (and the Marshal Space Flight Center) during the 1960’s space race, resulted in a deep appreciation for science and the desire to be a scientist. It was a time when science was revered and scientists were the good guys adding to the quality of life. Rather than a role model per se, it was the excitement around the field of science (generated by the space race) which attracted me to the field. I wanted to be a scientist so that I could be an astronaut. I felt that space travel would be common place within my lifetime.

In 1975, I entered The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and chose Chemistry due to a fascinating Freshmen Chemistry Professor and the ability to conduct undergraduate research within that Professor’s group. The first experiments I was given were synthetic in nature and blew up two ovens! After being assured that Dr. Jerry Atwood wasn’t really trying to give me a subtle hint to give up Chemistry, I studied single crystal X-ray crystallography with minimal synthetic experiments!

I thoroughly enjoyed my undergraduate research and decided to stay for graduate school at Alabama. During my undergraduate and graduate school days, I learned a full appreciation for the totality of a University and, of course became immersed in ‘Alabama Football.’ I like to tell people that I played in two national championship football games with Coach Bear Bryant during my university time, but I do (usually) eventually tell them that I was a Tuba Player in the Million Dollar Marching Band! This love of the marching band led me to stay in a marching band (at NIU and Alabama) for 28 years; last year (2003) being the first year I have not played the tuba!

Growing up in Alabama and getting all my degrees from The University of Alabama, taught me valuable lessons about the comprehensive nature of a university, and the total impact it can have on one’s life. In 1996, after 14 years as a faculty member at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, I was able to return to Alabama as a Full Professor. I feel exceptionally lucky to have this opportunity to give something back to the university which gave me so much while I was growing up.

Tuscaloosa, itself is a town with a population of about 80,000 located in central/western Alabama, about an hour from the Mississippi border. The closest airport, which I seem to see a lot of these days, is an hour to the east in the State’s largest city, Birmingham. It’s hard to describe Tuscaloosa, so I will extend the invitation, Come see it for your self and enjoy some of our ‘Southern Hospitality’!

Green Chemistry and my research

During the 1980s as a faculty member at Northern Illinois University, I made an unexpected (to me!) discovery that polyethylene glycol can be salted out by simple inorganic salts while I was investigating the coordination chemistry of f-elements by crown ethers and polyethylene glycol. I was fascinated by the fact that when PEG is salted out like this, you form two immiscible phases, yet both are over 80% water on a molar basis.¹ The field had been around for 40 years or so, mainly being investigated by Chemical Engineers for gentle separations of proteins and cellular materials.

I thought, this is great!, you can partition ions and molecules between two phases which are both 80% water on a molar basis. Who needs VOCs! Even before ‘Green Chemistry’ was as widespread as it is now, it was obvious that more environmentally benign chemistry was needed and certainly ‘volatile organic compounds’ had achieved a very negative connotation in the general public. We have worked (and still do!) in this field for 15 years now and it was this research which led us to ionic liquids and ultimately Green Chemistry.

Although one could argue that Green Chemistry needs ‘Research Money’, every field could make the same claim. Certainly governments could hasten the progress of developing green technology, but this should not be only the governments’ concern. Industry should be (and indeed some are) heavily investing in Green Chemistry.

There should not necessarily be legislative or regulatory barriers to Green Chemistry implementation. Any green technology which will eventually be successful, must not only be green, but also economically and socially acceptable. With such success, the technology will be adopted because it is good business, not because it’s green.

Green Chemistry is by its very nature interdisciplinary. I have always enjoyed interdisciplinary projects which allow us to work in one area and learn from the top people focusing on that field and introduce our work to an entirely different community. I want to make connections between different aspects of science and engineering.

Our work with ionic liquids arose from such an experience. I met Ken Seddon at a Crystal Engineering Conference in Digby, Nova Scotia where we discussed hydrophobic ionic liquids. I wanted to do separations from water and ionic liquids sounded like another alternative to VOCs which would compliment our work with PEG aqueous biphasic systems.²

I really did not imagine that ionic liquids would take off quite as much as they did. I have felt my role in this field has been to help increase the awareness of the ionic liquid field, what ionic liquids can do, but also what they cannot do. I have tried to connect an underlying molecular level understanding between several apparently disparate areas which turn out to be similar.

Ionic liquids and Green Chemistry began to both pick up steam (and followers) about the same time. Neither idea was new, and a lot of really good work in both areas preceded the time of my entry, but once again, it was the possible connections between the two fields that interested me. Here was an opportunity to develop new chemistries and gain some understanding of new solvents and solvent behavior, while at the same time keeping in mind the goals of Green Chemistry.

Ken Seddon and I hosted a NATO Advanced Research Workshop to try and bring together the (at the time) limited ionic liquids community and set a research agenda for the field. Perhaps the two most important outcomes of that meeting included the following:³

Ionic Liquids are intrinsically interesting and worthy of study for advancing science (ionic vs. molecular solvents) with the expectation that something useful may be derived.

Combined with Green Chemistry, a new paradigm in thinking about synthesis in general, Ionic Liquids provide an opportunity for science/engineering/business to work together from the beginning of the field’s development.

Thus, from the beginning, it was intended that if we were going to be developing new chemistries that they be developed in a sustainable fashion. As the field has developed,^4,5 it has been obvious that sometimes we fall back on old habits, just to get to a specific goal rather than incorporating the bigger picture of sustainable development. We are starting to see a lot of work published in the ionic liquids field now, where it is obvious that ‘ionic liquids research’ has become the goal, rather than letting the goals of ‘Green Chemistry’ drive the development and utilization of ionic liquids.

My most important role now, may be to continue to highlight the good AND the bad in the ionic liquids/Green Chemistry relationship. Only through identification of the deficiencies and the recognition of Green Chemistry as the ultimate goal, will we be able to truly take advantage of the unique chemistries ionic liquids have to offer.

Current responsibilities and Green Chemistry

As Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Center for Green Manufacturing,⁶ I would like to influence Green Chemistry from several directions. First, we must educate our students, not only in the classroom, but in the laboratory as they develop their dissertation research projects, at meetings as they disseminate their research and learn from the world’s experts, and during their career development. We can encourage and promote the ideals of Green Chemistry in everything we do for and with students and young professionals.

It is the responsibility of everyone in the field to explain their work to their colleagues and to the general public in a form which not only clearly delineates the chemistry, but also the motivation. There should be an honest assessment of the good and the bad. The work should be placed in proper context which not only delivers the message of Green Chemistry, but outlines how we may eventually achieve such technology.

I, of course, would also like to develop new knowledge and use that knowledge to develop new technologies that actually see industrial implementation. We are currently very excited about using ionic liquids as an enabling technology to dissolve cellulose and active ingredients which allow us to make new renewable advanced materials.^7–10 Hopefully, you will see more of this in the open literature soon!

Our goals of developing new green technology and transferring this to the business sector can be accomplished by strategic collaboration with academics, industry, or national laboratories. To that end, The University of Alabama is rededicating its efforts to grow the Alabama Institute for Manufacturing Excellence,¹¹ under the helm of Dr. Robert L. Wells. We intend to make Green Chemistry a vital component of the AIME concept.

Summary

The most difficult task we face is to continue the work of Green Chemistry without being able to give all the answers at once. As a Professor, my greatest impact will not be a single development which saves the world, it will be getting my students at all levels, and indeed anyone who hears one of my talks or lectures at meetings, to think about Green Chemistry and implement it in their own work.

What many do not realize when we are out discussing our work in the context of Green Chemistry, is that we are building a future where all the ramifications of the chemical profession are put out on the table and thought about up front. Most likely, none of us will immediately produce a process which will be a panacea to cure all the world’s ills. We must be willing to take those small steps which lead to a brighter (greener!) future, and justify our work to critics that look at the short term rather than the long term goals. I should point out, that those critics are just as vital to this process as those working in the field! We need to be able to answer their questions and continue to work toward a common goal.

I enjoy (and use for motivation) a quote from Harry Emerson Fosdick, ‘Always take a job that’s too big for you, and then do your best.’ I see this attitude in the Green Chemistry community, and I believe it will serve us well to maintain it.

Acknowledgements

I would be remiss without acknowledging the sponsors and research personnel that have furthered our Green Chemistry work. Our research is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Energy-Basic Energy Sciences and Environmental Management Science Program, U. S. Air Force, and the PG Research Foundation. The research personnel most involved in our Green Chemistry work include: Former Ph.D. students, Drs. Andrew H. Bond, Ann E. Visser and Heather D. Willauer; Staff Scientists in the Center for Green Manufacturing Drs. Jonathan G. Huddleston, Scott K. Spear, and John D. Holbrey; Postdoctoral Associate, Dr. Ji Chen; Graduate Students, Scott T. Griffin, Grant A. Broker, W. Matthew Reichert, Marc A. Klingshirn, Richard P. Swatloski, Melanie L. Moody, Megan B. Turner, Keith E. Gutowski, Nicholas J. Bridges, Violina A. Cocalia, Meghna Dilip, and Marcin Roman; and Undergraduate students, Jane Holly Poplin and J. Brett Wilson.

References

1. J. G. Huddleston, H. D. Willauer, S. T. Griffin and R. D. Rogers, Aqueous Polymeric Solutions as Environmentally Benign Liquid/Liquid Extraction Media, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 1999, 38, 2523–2539.
2. J. G. Huddleston, H. W. Willauer, R. P. Swatloski, A. E. Visser and R. D. Rogers, Room Temperature Ionic Liquids as Novel Media for “Clean” Liquid–Liquid Extraction,, Chem. Commun., 1998, 1765–1766.
3. Green Industrial Applications of Ionic Liquids, NATO Science Series II. Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, ed. R. D. Rogers, K. R. Seddon and S. Volkov, Kluwer, Dordrecht, 2003, vol. 92, pp. 553.
4. Ionic Liquids; Industrial Applications to Green Chemistry, ed. R. D. Rogers and K. R. Seddon, ACS Symposium Series 818, American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 2002, pp. 474.
5. Ionic Liquids as Green Solvents: Progress and Prospects, ed. R. D. Rogers and K. R. Seddon, ACS Symposium Series 856, American Chemical Society, Washington DC, 2003, pp. 599.
6. Center for Green Manufacturing web site: http://www.bama.ua.edu/∼cgm/ (last accessed December 23, 2003).
7. R. P. Swatloski, S. K. Spear, J. D. Holbrey and R. D. Rogers, Dissolution of Cellulose with Ionic Liquids, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2002, 124, 4974–4975.
8. R. P. Swatloski, J. D. Holbrey, S. K. Spear and R. D. Rogers, Ionic Liquids for the Dissolution and Regeneration of Cellulose, in Molten Salts XIII: Proceedings of the International Symposium, ed. P. C. Trulove, H. C. De long, R. A. Mantz, G. R. Stafford and M. Matsunaga, The Electrochemical Society, Pennington, NJ, 2002, vol. 2002–19, pp. 155–164.
9. R. P. Swatloski, R. D. Rogers and J. D. Holbrey, Dissolution and processing of cellulose using ionic liquids, U.S. Patent Application U.S. 10/256,521, International Application PCT/US02/31404, International Publication Number WO 03/029329 A2, April 10, 2003.
10. J. D Holbrey, S. K. Spear, M. B. Turner, R. P. Swatloski and R. D. Rogers, Cellulose Matrix Encapsulation and Method,U. S. Continuation-in-Part Application Filed March 21, 2003.
11. Alabama Institute for Manufacturing Excellence web site: http://www.aime.ua.edu/ (last accessed December 23, 2003).

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