Sustainable Chemistry & Innovative Chromatography: A Conversation with Prof. Isaiah Speight

Join us for an insightful interview with Dr. Isaiah Speight, Assistant Professor at William and Mary, as he discusses his groundbreaking work in sustainable chemistry and innovative chromatography techniques. In this engaging conversation, Prof. Speight shares:

• His research focus on sustainable chemistry from synthesis, financial, and educational perspectives
• The importance of NOBCChE (National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers)
• How HPLC and flash chromatography enable synthetic chemistry
• The advantages of automated flash chromatography systems
• Method development processes for new compounds and reactions
• Exciting ongoing projects, including 3D-printed mechanochemical reaction vessels and mercury-centered metal-organic frameworks

Discover how Prof. Speight's lab is pushing the boundaries of sustainable chemistry while training the next generation of undergraduate researchers. This interview offers valuable insights for chemists, students, and anyone interested in the future of sustainable scientific practices.

Video Transcription

NOBCChE and Professional Advocacy

Interviewer: We’ve met at ACS meetings where you were representing a student organization. Could you talk about that?

Isaiah Spate:
Yes, that organization is NOBCChE—the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers. It’s a national organization for both students and professionals, and at the time we met, I was serving on its board.

The mission of NOBCChE is to create a supportive space for Black chemists and chemical engineers—to empower them, advocate for them, and help generate opportunities within scientific spaces where advocacy may otherwise be lacking.

NOBCChE is a coast-to-coast organization that recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. One of its most powerful qualities is the level of support and openness it provides. There’s a strong sense of creativity—scientific, professional, and entrepreneurial—and a genuine culture of accessibility. First-time attendees can easily engage with senior leadership, and the organization is intentional about creating an environment where people feel safe, empowered, and inspired.

Role of Chromatography in Synthetic Chemistry

Interviewer: You mentioned your group uses HPLC and flash chromatography. How do these fit into your workflow?

Isaiah Spate:
Although we broadly describe ourselves as a synthetic chemistry group, our work is more targeted toward organic synthesis, which aligns with my institutional role. In practice, synthetic chemistry rarely proceeds cleanly—reactions don’t simply convert reagent A to product C without byproducts or impurities.

This is where chromatography becomes essential. Without reliable purification, you’re just carrying impurities forward. Flash chromatography allows us to isolate and purify compounds after reactions, while HPLC is particularly valuable for reaction monitoring, purity assessment, and conversion analysis.

High-quality chromatography underpins all downstream characterization. No one trusts NMR data if it’s full of unrelated peaks, so chromatography is foundational to producing meaningful and trustworthy results.

Manual vs. Automated Flash Chromatography

Interviewer: What are the advantages of automated flash chromatography compared to manual columns?

Isaiah Spate:
Both have value. Running manual columns is extremely important for training—it teaches fundamentals like solvent choice, column packing, flow rate, and separation behavior. That experience builds intuition.

Once those fundamentals are understood, automated flash systems become incredibly powerful. They allow for gradient control, reproducibility, scalability, and time efficiency. You can define methods, walk away, and focus on other work.

My appreciation for automation really came after running manual columns extensively. Automated systems aren’t just “plug-and-play”—they’re robust tools capable of handling challenging separations when used thoughtfully. That said, there are still times when a manual approach is necessary.

Choosing Between HPLC and Flash Chromatography

Interviewer: What factors influence whether you use HPLC or flash chromatography?

Isaiah Spate:
In our lab, HPLC is primarily used for reaction monitoring, not large-scale separations. We sample reactions to evaluate conversion, detect impurities, and guide optimization. This approach is common in industry, where in-process checks determine when to move to the next step.

Flash chromatography is where we focus on isolation and purity. HPLC may indicate full conversion, but it might miss non-UV-active byproducts. That’s why we also rely on TLC with staining, which can reveal compounds HPLC doesn’t detect.

This layered approach—HPLC, TLC, flash chromatography—allows us to fully understand and purify our products, leading to reliable spectral data (NMR, IR, melting point) and reproducible methods.

Method Development and Sustainability

Interviewer: Could you walk us through your method development process?

Isaiah Spate:
Our group emphasizes mechanochemistry, which often allows reactions to be run solvent-free or with minimal solvent. After reactions are complete, we use traditional tools like TLC and flash chromatography only when necessary.

Method development typically follows this sequence:

1. Identify initial reaction conditions from literature or inspiration.
2. Use HPLC to optimize reaction performance.
3. Scale up slightly to facilitate purification.
4. Optimize chromatography separately—often starting with TLC to determine solvent systems, polarity, gradients, or additives.
5. Scale purification once conditions are established and document methods thoroughly.

We’re very conscious of solvent waste. Even modest manual columns can generate liters of solvent waste, which contradicts the sustainability gains achieved during solvent-free synthesis. Our goal isn’t to avoid chromatography entirely, but to use it strategically and responsibly.

Importance of Method Transparency

Interviewer: You mentioned sample preparation and reporting detail—why is that so important?

Isaiah Spate:
The best scientific papers are those where you can reproduce the work without guessing. Detailed supplementary information—solvents, concentrations, gradients, purification steps—makes chemistry accessible and robust.

Too often, presentations emphasize results without discussing how those results were achieved. Conversations about chromatography conditions, stationary phases, mobile phases, and purification strategies are what enable meaningful scientific exchange.

When students and researchers share these details, it elevates the entire field.

Current and Ongoing Research Projects

Interviewer: Are there any projects you can share with us?

Isaiah Spate:
Yes, several. Our group is part of the NSF Center for the Mechanical Control of Chemistry (CMCC). One project involves 3D-printed mechanochemical reaction vessels designed to retrofit onto rotary evaporators. This dramatically lowers the cost barrier to mechanochemistry, enabling labs without ball mills to participate.

Another project explores mechanocatalysis, where the surface of metal reaction vessels—particularly copper—is used as a catalytic component in organometallic transformations.

We’re also involved in a three-way collaboration with Caltech and the University of Birmingham on mercury-centered metal–organic frameworks (MOFs). Our group synthesizes the materials, Caltech performs MicroED structural analysis, and Birmingham applies AI and machine learning to predict new structures. The predictions then feed back into experimental validation, creating a closed research loop.

This text has been automatically transcribed from a video presentation using AI technology. It may contain inaccuracies and is not guaranteed to be 100% correct.

Concentrating on Chromatography Podcast

Dive into the frontiers of chromatography, mass spectrometry, and sample preparation with host David Oliva. Each episode features candid conversations with leading researchers, industry innovators, and passionate scientists who are shaping the future of analytical chemistry. From decoding PFAS detection challenges to exploring the latest in AI-assisted liquid chromatography, this show uncovers practical workflows, sustainability breakthroughs, and the real-world impact of separation science. Whether you’re a chromatographer, lab professional, or researcher you'll discover inspiring content!

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