The narrative of the lone, Einstein-like researcher who propels humanity into the next technological era is unrealistic for a myriad of reasons. It also has embedded a serious misconception in the general public regarding scientists and the influences upon them.
The most important ingredient to a successful research endeavor is funding. Without it, the output of even the most dedicated researchers will be curtailed dramatically. Acquiring funding is highly competitive and, depending on the source, it influences the research being conducted.
On the face of it, this fact is underwhelming. The federal government distributes billions of dollars annually through the national science foundation to academic institutions all over the country conducting valuable research (1).
However, the chemical industry is an immense source of funding in science and the economic influence of the industry is affecting the field of materials science. Essentially, research goals are inextricably linked to the success of the employer while less financially viable endeavors are left uninvestigated. This is exemplified well in the story of zeolites.
Zeolites are a somewhat obscure class of materials to most non-scientists that revolutionized the petrol industry some decades ago. These frameworks of silicon and oxygen have been used as critical ingredients for the conversion of waste byproducts of the oil refinery process into useful gasoline, significantly elevating the efficiency of the oil industry (2).
Since the first synthesis of an artificial zeolite by Richard Barrer at Union Carbide in the early 1940s, the industry raced to develop and patent new zeolite structures with the hope that they would discover better structures for improving the efficiency of the refinery process (2).
The story of the science of zeolites is heavily dominated by the industry and it is a clear example of an industrial need driving the progression of a particular field. While zeolites have been improving the efficiency of oil refinery and, therefore reducing gas prices to some extent, the research goals of the field of zeolites have skewed the outlook for the potential of new zeolites to revolutionize the energy industry again.
Namely, climate change has been brought to the forefront of many researcher’s minds as the consequences of our dependence on fossil fuels become more and more clear every year. Zeolites have a lesser-known and certainly lesser-investigated potential for their use in the conversion of biomass to fuels (3), the ‘green’ catalytic conversion of methane to methanol (4), and important redox chemistry that can reduce the toxicity of the fumes coming from our vehicles without the need for precious metals (2).
While climate change has induced more academics to research these green applications of zeolites, the greater share of zeolite research is still directed at improving the petrol industry. If climate change is to be curbed, it has been made abundantly clear that we must phase out or at least dramatically reduce our dependence on fossil fuels due to their effect on the environment. Zeolites are still a mysterious field of science and they still have potential to revolutionize the field of green catalysis just as they have done for the petrol industry.
So why have zeolites not been the savior that it seems they could be? The simple answer is the petrol industry may have a monopoly on the leading zeolite experts in the field and they are largely concerned with the scientific questions that an oil company would be concerned with. This may be hindering the progress of using zeolites as catalysts in green chemical reactions that would be in competition with the oil industry.
Recognizing the impact of an industry on the progression of a field of science is sometimes necessary to explain the reasons for why certain scientific questions are rigorously studied while others are not. In order to apply the potential of zeolites, more funding in the academic field is needed to generate more interest in scientific questions regarding zeolites that are not influenced by the oil industry.
References
(1) About the National Science Foundation. https://www.nsf.gov/about/ (Accessed 12/12/2020).
(2) Dusselier, M.; Davis, M. E. Small-Pore Zeolites: Synthesis and Catalysis. Chem. Rev. 2018 (118), 5265–5329.
(3) Lin, L.; Sheveleva, A. M.; Silva, I.; Parlett, C. M. A.; Tang, Z.; Liu, Y.; Fan, M.; Han, X.; Carter, J. H.; Tuna, F.; McInnes, E. J. L.; Cheng, Y.; Daemen, L. L.; Rudic, S.; Ramirez-Cuesta, A. J.; Tang, C. C.; Yang, S. Quantitative production of butenes from biomass-derived γ-valerolactone catalysed by hetero-atomic MFI zeolite. Nat. Mater. 2020 (19), 86–93.
(4) Wulfers, M. J.; Teketel, S.; Lobo, R. F. Conversion of methane to methanol on copper containing small-pore zeolites and zeotypes. Chem. Commun. 2015 (51), 4447–4450.
