Archive for April, 2012

Top ten most accessed articles in March

This month sees the following articles in Green Chemistry that are in the top ten most accessed:-

Transition metal based catalysts in the aerobic oxidation of alcohols
Camilla Parmeggiani and Francesca Cardona
Green Chem., 2012, 14, 547-564, DOI: 10.1039/C2GC16344F

Synthesis and analytical applications of photoluminescent carbon nanodots
Pin-Che Hsu, Zih-Yu Shih, Chia-Hsin Lee and Huan-Tsung Chang
Green Chem., 2012, 14, 917-920 ,  DOI: 10.1039/C2GC16451E

A highly efficient Cu-catalyst system for N-arylation of azoles in water
Deping Wang, Fuxing Zhang, Daizhi Kuang, Jiangxi Yu and Junhua Li
Green Chem., 2012, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C2GC35077G

Catalytic conversion of biomass using solvents derived from lignin
Pooya Azadi, Ronald Carrasquillo-Flores, Yomaira J. Pagán-Torres, Elif I. Gürbüz, Ramin Farnood and James A. Dumesic
Green Chem., 2012, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C2GC35203F

The selective hydrogenation of biomass-derived 5-hydroxymethylfurfural using heterogeneous catalysts
Ricardo Alamillo, Mark Tucker, Mei Chia, Yomaira Pagán-Torres and James Dumesic
Green Chem., 2012, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C2GC35039D

Highly efficient and selective sunlight-induced photocatalytic oxidation of cyclohexane on an eco-catalyst under a CO2 atmosphere
Yusuke Ide, Hideya Hattori, Shuhei Ogo, Masahiro Sadakane and Tsuneji Sano
Green Chem., 2012, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C2GC16594E

The synthesis of N-heterocycles via copper/TEMPO catalysed aerobic oxidation of amino alcohols
James C. A. Flanagan, Laura M. Dornan, Mark G. McLaughlin, Niall G. McCreanor, Matthew J. Cook and Mark J. Muldoon
Green Chem., 2012, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C2GC35062A

Solvent-free bromination reactions with sodium bromide and oxone promoted by mechanical milling
Guan-Wu Wang and Jie Gao
Green Chem., 2012, 14, 1125-1131, DOI: 10.1039/C2GC16606B

Exploring the ruthenium catalysed synthesis of γ-valerolactone in alcohols and utilisation of mild solvent-free reaction conditions
Mohammad G. Al-Shaal, William R. H. Wright and Regina Palkovits
Green Chem., 2012, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C2GC16631C

Green synthesis of metal nanoparticles using plants
Siavash Iravani
Green Chem., 2011, 13, 2638-2650, DOI: 10.1039/C1GC15386B

Why not take a look at the articles today and blog your thoughts and comments below.

Fancy submitting an article to Green Chemistry? Then why not submit to us today or alternatively email us your suggestions.

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4th International IUPAC Conference on Green Chemistry

The 4th International IUPAC Conference on Green Chemistry (4th ICGC) will be held in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil between the 25-29th August 2012. 

The 4th ICGC will focus on broad topics including benign synthesis/processes, green chemistry for energy production, chemicals from renewable resources, green engineering, education in green chemistry and engineering and policy.  The conference will be held in Foz do Iguaçu, one of the most beautiful tourist destinations in Latin America.

Confirmed Plenary lectaures are: Paul Anastas (Yale University, USA), James Clark (University of York, UK), Jairton Dupont (University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), Buxing Han (Chinese Academy of Sciences, China), Adelio Machado (Porto University, Portugal), Anita Marsaioli (University of Campinas, Brazil), Robin Rogers (University of Alabama, USA), Karl Barry Sharpless (Scripps Research Institute, USA), Roger Sheldon (Delft University, The Netherlands) and Rajendar S. Varma (EPA, USA).

Submission of abstracts and early bird registration must be completed by the 15th May.  For more information, please visit the website.

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Recyclable silica-supported prolinamide organocatalysts for direct asymmetric Aldol reaction in water

A supported organaocatalyst has been developed for direct asymmetric Aldol reaction in water with higher enantioselectivity than the original homogeneous catalyst.

Asymmetric organocatalyst is considered to be a very powerful tool for stereoselective synthesis on enantiomerically enriched compounds.  However, organocatalytic reactions, whilst avoiding many of the problems associated with metal catalysts, often require high catalyst loadings and tedious purification of the products. 

In this work, Roser Pleixats and colleagues from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the University of Alicante (Spain) and the Institute Charles Gerhardt Montpellier (France), have developed a recyclable silica-supported prolinamide organocatalyst.  The catalyst was applied to the direct asymmetric Aldol reaction, and allowed reactions to be conducted exclusively in water without the need of a co-catalyst.  This also resulted in easier isolation of the product and good recycling (at least three times) of the catalyst without the need for regeneration. 

This article is free to access until the 24th May 2012!  Click on the link below to find out more…

Recyclable silica-supported prolinamide organocatalysts for direct asymmetric Aldol reaction in water, Amàlia Monge-Marcet, Xavier Cattoën, Diego A. Alonso, Carmen Nájera, Michel Wong Chi Man and Roser Pleixats, Green Chem., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2GC35227C

You may also be interested in the following article as well – free to access for 2 weeks!

Advances in catalytic metal-free reductions: from bio-inspired concepts to applications in the organocatalytic synthesis of pharmaceuticals and natural products, Magnus Rueping, Jeremy Dufour and Fenja R. Schoepke, Green Chem., 2011, 13, 1084-1105

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Meet our Authors: Pedro Lozano

Pedro Lozano in a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Murcia, Spain.  His current research interests are related to enzyme technology with particular focus on the use of enzymes in ionic liquids and supercritical fluids.  Pedro took time out from his work to speak to Green Chemistry

Who or what initially inspired you to become a chemist?

My interest in experimental sciences began during my training at High School, which awoke my passion to know and understand all the phenomena of Nature. The choice to be a chemist was really accidental, because belonging to a family with few economic resources I had to study at the public University nearest my home, the University of Murcia. In 1979, Chemistry was the only experimental sciences degree offered this university. However, during the last two years of training in Chemistry, I chose the specialty of Biochemistry, allowing me to discover not only that the essence of life is chemistry, but also the enormous potential of applying biological systems to develop chemical processes of industrial interest in the context of Biotechnology. In fact, my PhD dealt with a cross-flow membrane reactor with immobilized pectinases to continuously produce clarified fruit juices.

What has been the motivation behind your recent research?

During the 90’s, my research was focused on the application of proteases to peptide synthesis in non-conventional media, mainly organic solvents and supercritical fluids. I came across supercritical fluids during my postdoctoral training at the Centre de Bioengenierie Gilbert Durand at Toulouse. I realized that there was a whole world to discover using biocatalytic systems in combination with these new solvents. Then by chance, in 1999 I met Dr. Michel Vaultier who was visiting the University of Murcia, and it was he who introduced me to ionic liquids. Also, the paper of Prof Joan F. Brennecke, (Nature, 1999, 399, 28-29) was a source of inspiration. Since that time, the combination of the catalytic excellence of enzymes with the unique characteristics of both supercritical fluids and ionic liquids has been a constant in my research activities. The idea of being able to perform clean and continuous catalytic processes under non-aqueous conditions using the inherent advantages of enzymes for processes of industrial interest is the final aim. At this moment, both dynamic kinetic resolutions and the enzymatic synthesis of biodiesel are the two processes under study, because of their possible application to important strategic sectors of the pharmaceutical and biofuels industries, respectively. However, the small size of our laboratory, the lack of human and material resources and an excessive teaching load are clear limitations to any research development.

What do you see as the main challenges facing research in this area?

Today, the big challenge, not only in this field, is to be able to do research in Spain in the deep economic crisis.

Outside this context, to provide a sufficiently high level of activity and stability to the enzymes to carry out synthetic processes in an overall reaction and separation approach is an important challenge. In the case of chemoenzymatic processes, it is important to have an active and selective chemical catalyst for the racemisation step, as it must also preserve (or at least, not destroy) the catalytic properties of enzymes for the kinetic resolution step. For instance, we have developed appropriate chemoenzymatic systems for the dynamic kinetic resolution of a sec-arylalcohol, but there are other sec-compounds like sec-amines, sec-thiols, etc. (in aryl and alkyl compounds), but there are many candidate reactions waiting to be studied. In the case of the enzymatic synthesis of biodiesel, our original contribution concerned the use of ILs with a large alkyl-side chain in their cations. This provides efficient monophasic reaction systems for enzyme catalysis, and opened the door to their industrial application. The full transformation of vegetable oil into biofuel molecules, without the undesirable production of glycerol is a very interesting challenge for any multicatalytic system.

Where do you see the field of Green Chemistry being in 5 or 10 years time?

The main overall challenge for the 21st century is to ensure truly sustainable development, as it is defined by the Brundtland Report, “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own need”, where the implementation of the twelve Principles of Green Chemistry, masterfully defined by Prof. Paul T. Anastas, is a good roadmap to follow. In the next 10 years, the interest of the society in green chemistry will be at its highest level, because of the profound changes that it should be occur in the chemical industry sector. Green Chemistry research should make efforts to combine selective catalysts with clean reaction media, by using sustainable approaches for product recovery and to enable the recycling/reuse of these reaction media. To transfer the exquisite efficiency shown by enzymes in nature to chemical processes may constitute the most powerful toolbox for developing a clean and sustainable chemical industry in the near future.

And finally…

If you could not be a scientist, but could be anything else, what would you be?

Really, research is vocational, and provides scientists with the enormous pleasure of having a job they enjoy. In my case, I am very lucky with my job. Furthermore, I like to work and I enjoy working…. As an undergraduate, I had many jobs during the summers to earn money to finance my studies. So, if I had not been a scientist, I do not know what other job had I would have chosen, but I am sure that it would be a job of service to society, which I would enjoy.

Take a look a couple of Pedro’s recent articles in Green Chemistryfree to access until the 22nd May 2012:

Stabilizing immobilized cellulase by ionic liquids for saccharification of cellulose solutions in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, Pedro Lozano, Berenice Bernal, Juana M. Bernal, Mathieu Pucheault and Michel Vaultier, Green Chem., 2011, 13, 1406-1410

An efficient activity ionic liquid-enzyme system for biodiesel production, Teresa De Diego, Arturo Manjón, Pedro Lozano, Michel Vaultier and José L. Iborra, Green Chem., 2011, 13, 444-451

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Green Solvents 2012 – Submission deadline extended to the 30th April 2012!

The latest event in the biennial ‘Green Solvents for Synthesis‘ conference series is being held on the 7th-10th October 2012 in Boppard, Germany – Advanced Concepts for Solution Phase Chemistry and Processes.

The submission deadline for abstracts for oral and poster presentations has now been extended to the 30th April 2012!  To submit your abstract or for more details, please click here.

This year’s scientific focus lies on energy-efficient processes, selectivity control for waste prevention, alternative and efficient use of raw materials, activation and capture of CO2 and integrated reaction and separation processes.

The scientific programme features the traditional Sunday evening lecture, keynote lectures by renowned experts in the field and submitted oral presentations.  An additional highlight is the poster session which will give you the opportunity for gripping discussions on cutting-edge research results.

More information can be found at the conference website: http://events.dechema.de/events/en/gsfs2012.html.  Registration for the event will open by the end of June.

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Perspective: Process intensification strategies and membrane engineering

In this perspective, Enrico Drioli and colleagues evaluate how membrane systems can help achieve ‘green process engineering’.

The principles of a process intensification strategy can lead to the development and redesign of new processes which are more compact and efficient than their traditional counterparts.  These new processes can allow for better exploitation of raw materials, lower energy consumption and a reduced plant volume.  Membrane technologies can be seen as contributing to these principles and over the last few years, the scope for membrane operations has become widely recognised.

In this perspective article, the authors provide an overview of membrane applications and their perspectives in the fields of hydrogen production and distillation will be analysied through case studies.  The aim of this review is to show how redesigning traditional operations as membrane systems might contribute to the realization of the goals of process intensification. 

This article is free to access until the 16th May 2012! Click on the link below to find out more…

Process intensification strategies and membrane engineering, Enrico Drioli, Adele Brunetti, Gianluca Di Profio and Giuseppe Barbieri, Green Chem., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2GC16668B

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RSC US Roadshows 2012 – Week 1: California

As week 1 of the RSC US Raodshows 2012 begins, look out for Green Chemistry Editor Sarah Ruthven who will be visiting universities in California this week.

Starting on the 16th April, RSC Publishing will be touring the United States of America to share more than 170 years experience of publishing in the chemical sciences. Sixteen universities across the country will be hosting these one-day events, which are open to all members of the hosting institute.

Week 1 sees RSC Publishing visit four universities in California:

  • 16th AprilUniversity of California Irvine
  • 17th AprilUniversity of California Los Angeles
  • 18th AprilUniversity of California Santa Barbara
  • 20th AprilUniversity of California Berkeley

Click here to find out more…

Keep up to date with the RSC US roadshow by following the Royal Society of Chemistry on Facebook, or look out for #RSC2012 on Twitter!

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The continuous flow Barbier reaction: an improved environmental alternative to the Grignard reaction?

A continuous flow Barbier reaction was employed for the production of a key pharmaceutical intermediate (1) in the synthesis of edivoxetine·HCl (a highly selective norepinephrine re-uptake inhibitor).

US scientists from Eli Lilly and Company and D&M Continuous Solutions, led by Michael Kopach, report the development of a continuous Barbier reaction which preserves chirality and the product obtained in >99% ee.  The team ran the process in a series of continuous stirred tank reactors, where residence time, solvent composition, stoichiometry and operations temperature were optimised to produce 12 g per hour of the ketone precursor to 1 with 98% ee and 88% in situ yield for 47 hours total flow time.  Continuous salt formation and isolation of 1 could then be achieved from the ketone solution with >99% purity.

This process offers up several significant advantages over a traditional Grignard batch process.  This continuous flow method gave greater than 30% reduced process mass intensity and magnesium usage relative to the batch method.  Equally, the flow process resulted in >100 x less excess magnesium to quench and >100 x less diisobutylaluminum hydride to initiate giving significant safety benefits.  The authors expect that the maximum long-term scale of the process is 50 L which would replace 4000-6000 L batch reactors.

This article is free to access until the 11th May 2012! Click on the link below to find out more…

The continuous flow Barbier reaction: an improved environmental alternative to the Grignard reaction?, Michael E. Kopach, Dilwyn J. Roberts, Martin D. Johnson, Jennifer McClary Groh, Jonathan J. Adler, John P. Schafer, Michael E. Kobierski and William G. Trankle, Green Chem., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2GC35050E

You may also be interested in the following article as well – free to access for 2 weeks!

Development of safe and scalable continuous-flow methods for palladium-catalyzed aerobic oxidation reactions, Xuan Ye, Martin D. Johnson, Tianning Diao, Matthew H. Yates and Shannon S. Stahl, Green Chem., 2010, 12, 1180-1186

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Meet our Authors: Franck Dumeignil

© CNRS Photothèque / Cyril FRESILLON

Franck Dumeignil is a Professor in the Unit of Catalysis and Solid State Chemistry at the University of Lille, France.  His research is focused on upgrading alcohols from biomass to obtain fuel, solvents and building blocks for the chemical industry, and enhancing bio-oil for energy needs.  Franck took a few moments to talk to Green Chemistry

Who or what initially inspired you to become a chemist? 

I always liked science in general – mathematics, physics and chemistry. I must confess that I was a lazy student at that time, but I could obtain nice results in chemistry without working a lot, while for mathematics I had to work a lot harder to achieve good results! That was when I decided to select chemistry as a speciality. At University we had an impressive teacher, Prof. Ginette Leclercq, who was responsible for the catalysis lectures. Thanks to her I fell in love with catalysis and became a specialist in the subject! Ironically, after my PhD thesis in France and having spent almost 7 years in Japan, I came back to France, and obtained a full professor position due to an opening available because of the retirement of none other than Prof. Leclercq! I feel this is an amazing thing in my life – I could never have expected this when I was a student following the top-quality lectures of Prof. Leclercq, while being so impressed… 

What has been the motivation behind your recent research? 

My recent research concerns catalysis for biorefineries. This is an exciting subject with so many perspectives, so many new things to discover and new processes to develop and implement! 

What do you see as the main challenges facing research in this area? 

There are multiple challenges. The molecules issued from biomass are more reactive than those issued from fossil resources. This can be seen as a decisive advantage, but when using heterogeneous catalysis, the catalysts then tend to coke much more rapidly. Furthermore, the feeds contain water, and the reactions generate water in most of the cases: what happens to the catalytic sites in these conditions? Another challenge is that the biomass-derived molecules usually contain a few different moieties, and selective attack is also an issue. 

Where do you see the field of Green Chemistry being in 5 or 10 years time? 

Green chemistry will develop and reach maturity as green metrics will be refined and become more and more reliable. What people usually need is ‘numbers’, which are much more concrete than concepts. Reliably and systematically quantifying green chemistry for any process/reaction will be a decisive advance in this field. 

And finally… 

If you could not be a scientist, but could be anything else, what would you be? 

A pianist, or a composer (not too late!), or a F1 driver, or even a squash player! My hobbies are of course in line with this!

Take a look a couple of Franck’s recent articles in Green Chemistryfree to access until the 4th May 2012:

Selective catalytic oxidation of glycerol: perspectives for high value chemicals, Benjamin Katryniok, Hiroshi Kimura, Elżbieta Skrzyńska, Jean-Sébastien Girardon, Pascal Fongarland, Mickaël Capron, Rémy Ducoulombier, Naoki Mimura, Sébastien Paul and Franck Dumeignil, Green Chem., 2011, 13, 1960-1979

Glycerol dehydration to acrolein in the context of new uses of glycerol, Benjamin Katryniok, Sébastien Paul, Virginie Bellière-Baca, Patrick Rey and Franck Dumeignil, Green Chem., 2010, 12, 2079-2098

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The fate of bio-carbon in FCC co-processing products

French scientists have investigated the mechanisms involved in producing mixed bio/fossil fuels and the fate of the bio-carbon during the process.

In order to meet the regulation constraints for transportation fuels set by the European Commission, a promising solution is to produce mixed bio/fossil fuels by co-processing biomass pyrolysis oil with crude oil fractions (obtained from distillation in a standard oil refinery).  In previous work, Yves Schuurman and colleagues from the University of Lyon, France, showed that gasoline could be produced by co-processing hydrodeoxygenated pyrolysis oil with conventional vacuum gas oil in a lab-scale fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit.  However, up till now, accurate determination of the proportion of renewable molecules in the target product to be commercialised, i.e. gasoline, has not be preformed, but is very important for technical and marketing reasons. 

In this work, the Carbon-14 (14C) method was used to determine bio-carbon content in FCC products.  While fossil fuel is virtually 14C-free, biofuels contain the present-day ‘natural’ levels of 14C.  The results from this study have given valuable information on the co-processing mechanism, and the authors show that co-processing bio-oil with fossil fuel resources leads to bio-carbon impoverished gasoline but bio-carbon enriched liquefied petroleum gas.

This article is free to access until 3rd May 2012!  Click on the link below to find out more…

The fate of bio-carbon in FCC co-processing products, Gabriella Fogassy, Nicolas Thegarid, Yves Schuurman and Claude Mirodatos, Green Chem., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2GC35152H

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