Space and Time Crystal Engineering in Developing Futuristic Chemical Technology

Abstract

In the coming years, multipurpose catalysts for delivering different products under the same chemical condition will be required for developing smart devices for industrial or household use. In order to design such multipurpose devices with two or more specific roles, we need to incorporate a few independent but externally controllable catalytically active centers. Through space crystal engineering, such an externally controllable multipurpose MOF-based photocatalyst could be designed. In a chemical system, a few mutually independent secondary reaction cycles nested within the principal reaction cycle can be activated externally to yield different competitive products. Each reaction cycle can be converted into a time crystal, where the time consuming each reaction step could be converted as an event and all the reaction steps or events could be connected by a circle to build a time crystal. For fractal reaction cycles, a time polycrystal can be generated. By activating a certain fractal event based nested time crystal branch, we can select one of the desired competitive products according to our needs. This viewpoint intends to bring together the ideas of (spatial) crystal engineering and time crystal engineering in order to make use of the time–space arrangement in reaction–catalysis systems and introduce new aspects to futuristic chemical engineering technology.

Time Crystal Synthon: The Way to Integrate Cascade Reactions for Advancing Multistep Flow Synthesis

“…We can minimize the byproduct, and as water is the 'universal solvent' for all the reactions, the body becomes susceptible to carrying out all the reactions in a single solvent and reduces the complexity. Once we can tune the product by exploiting different catalysts, we can extract two different products, even from a single reaction vessel [11]. By exploiting this concept, the medicinal compounds can also be prepared similar to the flow synthesis [6].…”

“…A catalytic reaction cycle occurs when a certain catalyst forms one or more temporary bonds with the substrate to convert it into a product under a few steps and repeats the mechanism until the reaction is finished or forcefully stopped. By viewing each time-consuming step in a catalytic reaction cycle as an event and circularly linking them through the reagents or products, it is possible to transform the catalytic cycle into a time crystal, as depicted in Scheme 1a [10,11]. A time crystal is a clock-like structure that forms when the symmetry of time translation is broken, allowing for the sequencing of multiple sequential events.…”

“…This reaction converts methanol into water. By converting all the time-consuming reactions into events, we can construct the time crystal of the coupled reaction cycles [10,11].…”

“…From the literature, we can see that catalytic cycles can be integrated with other catalytic cycles by three basic modes: (i) by transferring a product as a reagent to the next cycle, (ii) by exchanging molecular parts through an exchange reaction between two cycles, and (iii) by sharing complete reaction steps in coupling two cycles. If we convert these kinds of catalytic reaction cycles into the time crystal, we can see how time-consuming events (reactions) are connected with each other in bridging the clocking topologies (Scheme 1b,c) [10,11]. As a single reaction takes a few milliseconds or femtoseconds to happen, the two neighbouring clocks may not be of the same size.…”

Physical Modifications and Algorithmic Predictions behind Further Advancing 2D Water Splitting Photocatalyst: An Overview

“…By exploring crystal engineering and timecrystal engineering, [117] a time-space arrangement in reaction-catalysis can introduce fractal event organizing nested time crystal branch in picking out a desired product from the competitive synthesis mode according to our requirements. [118] Thus, this research is reached at such a level that developing a catalyst by a single person becomes impossible. A good team effort involving various experts such as catalysts, crystal engineers, machine learning, and material science will reduce the effort required to develop more efficient water oxidation catalysts for the benefit of civilization.…”