Archive for April, 2013

Green Chemistry issue 5 now available online!

Issue 5 of Green Chemistry is now available to read online.

The front cover (left) this month features work by Etienne Grau and Stefan Mecking from Konstanz, Germany. In their work, caryophyllene and humulene, renewable sesquiterpenes from clove oil, were subject to metathesis polymerization to yield non-crosslinked linear polymers with unique microstructures and low glass transition temperatures.

Read the research: Polyterpenes by ring opening metathesis polymerization of caryophyllene and humulene, E. Grau and S. Mecking, Green Chem., 2013, 15, 1112–1115, DOI: c3gc40300a

The inside front cover (right) this month features work by Thomas-Xavier Métro, Frédéric Lamaty and co-workers from Montpellier, France. Their paper describes an original liquid-assisted ball-milling methodology for peptide bond synthesis – avoiding toxic solvents and reactants – and its application to the synthesis of Leu-enkephalin.

Read the research: Environmentally benign peptide synthesis using liquid-assisted ball-milling: application to the synthesis of Leu-enkephalin, J. Bonnamour, T.-X. Métro, J. Martinez and F. Lamaty, Green Chem., 2013, 15, 1116–1120, DOI: c3gc40302e

Both of these articles are free to access for 6 weeks!

Keep up-to-date with the latest content in Green Chemistry by registering for our free table of contents alerts.

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Creating biodegradable electronics using shellac

Scientists in Austria, Romania and Turkey have used the natural resin shellac to devise biocompatible organic field-effect transistors (OFETs), which could help make electronic gadgets biodegradable and allow easier use of OFETs in the body.

Multi-coloured row of nail polish bottles, illustrating a current application of shellac

© Shutterstock

Together with their better known cousins – organic photovoltaics (OPVs) and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) – OFETs are already revolutionising the electronics industry, bringing us flexible displays and light-weight solar-powered chargers. Switching the synthetic substrate material and dielectric layer to the naturally occurring shellac has a number of advantages such as low cost, low toxicity and low environmental impact.

Currently used in the fashion and beauty industry as a hard-wearing nail varnish, shellac has also been used to make gramophone records and as a furniture finish. The material is composed of a mixture of aliphatic and alicyclic hydroxy acids that are easily cross-linked by heating, resulting in a smooth, glassy substrate for the OFET devices to be built upon. It is also easy to process.

 

Read the full article in Chemistry World

Read the original journal article in Green Chemistry:
Natural resin shellac as a substrate and a dielectric layer for organic field-effect transistors
Mihai Irimia-Vladu, Eric Daniel Głowacki, Günther Schwabegger, Lucia Leonat, Hava Zekiye Akpinar, Helmut Sitter, Siegfried Bauer and Niyazi Serdar Sariciftci
Green Chem., 2013, Advance Article 
DOI: 10.1039/C3GC40388B, Communication

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Sieving silica sieves from biomass ash

Burning biomass for heat and power could produce as much as 2000 TWh by 2020, which would produce 4–15.6 million tonnes of waste ash, per year, in Europe alone. To address the problem of what to do with all this waste, scientists in the UK have developed a method to convert this ash into mesoporous silica.

Although some of the waste ash produced from the combustion of biomass is currently used in construction, most of it ends up in landfill. Therefore, extracting alkali silicates, which can be used in cement, detergents, catalysts and catalyst supports, is one way of reusing the potentially huge quantities of ash due to be produced in the future.

The team, led by Duncan Maquarrie at the University of York, developed an efficient route for extracting the silicates by forming alkali silicate solutions. The silicate solutions were converted into the porous silica, MCM-41, a useful catalyst and molecular sieve.

Read what Duncan Macquarrie has to say about the research in Chemistry World.

Read the original research published in Green Chemistry:

Alkali silicates and structured mesoporous silicas from biomass power station wastes: the emergence of bio-MCMs, J. R. Dodson,  E. C. Cooper,  A. J. Hunt,  A. Matharu,  J. Cole,  A. Minihan,  J. H. Clark and D. J. Macquarrie, Green Chem., 2013, DOI: 10.1039/C3GC40324F

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Top 10 most accessed articles in January

For Green Chemistry, the top 10 most accessed articles in January were as follows:

Selective oxidation of alcohols and aldehydes over supported metal nanoparticles
Sara E. Davis, Matthew S. Ide and Robert J. Davis
Green Chem., 2013, 15, 17-45
DOI: 10.1039/C2GC36441G, Critical Review

Food waste biomass: a resource for high-value chemicals
Lucie A. Pfaltzgraff, Mario De bruyn, Emma C. Cooper, Vitaly Budarin and James H. Clark
Green Chem., 2013, 15, 307-314
DOI: 10.1039/C2GC36978H, Perspective

A simple metal-free catalytic sulfoxidation under visible light and air
Xiangyong Gu, Xiang Li, Yahong Chai, Qi Yang, Pixu Li and Yingming Yao
Green Chem., 2013, 15, 357-361
DOI: 10.1039/C2GC36683E, Communication

Deconstruction of lignocellulosic biomass with ionic liquids
Agnieszka Brandt, John Gräsvik, Jason P. Hallett and Tom Welton
Green Chem., 2013, 15, 550-583
DOI: 10.1039/C2GC36364J, Critical Review

Evaluation of alternative solvents in common amide coupling reactions: replacement of dichloromethane and N,N-dimethylformamide
Donna S. MacMillan, Jane Murray, Helen F. Sneddon, Craig Jamieson and Allan J. B. Watson
Green Chem., 2013, 15, 596-600
DOI: 10.1039/C2GC36900A, Communication

Catalytic conversion of biomass to biofuels
David Martin Alonso, Jesse Q. Bond and James A. Dumesic
Green Chem., 2010, 12, 1493-1513
DOI: 10.1039/C004654J, Critical Review

Designing endocrine disruption out of the next generation of chemicals
T. T. Schug, R. Abagyan, B. Blumberg, T. J. Collins, D. Crews, P. L. DeFur, S. M. Dickerson, T. M. Edwards, A. C. Gore, L. J. Guillette, T. Hayes, J. J. Heindel, A. Moores, H. B. Patisaul, T. L. Tal, K. A. Thayer, L. N. Vandenberg, J. C. Warner, C. S. Watson, F. S. vom Saal, R. T. Zoeller, K. P. O’Brien and J. P. Myers
Green Chem., 2013, 15, 181-198
DOI: 10.1039/C2GC35055F, Paper

Gamma-valerolactone, a sustainable platform molecule derived from lignocellulosic biomass
David Martin Alonso, Stephanie G. Wettstein and James A. Dumesic
Green Chem., 2013, 15, 584-595
DOI: 10.1039/C3GC37065H, Critical Review

Metal-catalyzed amide bond forming reactions in an environmentally friendly aqueous medium: nitrile hydrations and beyond
Rocío García-Álvarez, Pascale Crochet and Victorio Cadierno
Green Chem., 2013, 15, 46-66
DOI: 10.1039/C2GC36534K, Tutorial Review

Cyclometalated iridium complexes for transfer hydrogenation of carbonyl groups in water
Yawen Wei, Dong Xue, Qian Lei, Chao Wang and Jianliang Xiao
Green Chem., 2013, 15, 629-634
DOI: 10.1039/C2GC36619C, Communication

Take a look at the articles, then let us know your thoughts and comments below.

Interested in submitting your own work to Green Chemistry? You can submit online today, or email us with your ideas and suggestions.

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Recycling rare earth elements using ionic liquids

Recycling old magnets, so that rare-earth metals can be re-used, could help to solve an urgent raw material supply problem in the electronics industry. Researchers from the University of Leuven, Belgium, have used ionic liquids to separate neodymium and samarium from transition metals like iron, manganese and cobalt – all elements that are used in the construction of permanent rare-earth magnets, which are found in electronic devices ranging from hard drives to air conditioners and wind turbines.

‘The process involves the liquid-liquid extraction of rare-earth metals from the other elements present in neodymium-iron-boron and samarium-cobalt magnets,’ explains Koen Binnemans who leads the group developing the process. ‘These other elements – including iron, cobalt, manganese, copper and zinc – are extracted into the ionic-liquid phase, while the rare-earth metals are left behind in the aqueous phase,’ he says, adding that the ionic liquid itself – trihexyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium chloride – can also be re-used, after the transition metals have been stripped out.

In traditional liquid-liquid extractions of metal ions, an aqueous phase containing the metal salt is mixed with an organic phase containing an extraction agent. Simple though they are, these processes use organic phases comprising flammable and volatile solvents, like toluene, kerosene or diethyl ether. Ionic liquids are far more environmentally friendly, having very low vapour pressure and non-flammability.

Read the full article in Chemistry World

Read the original journal article in Green Chemistry:

Removal of transition metals from rare earths by solvent extraction with an undiluted phosphonium ionic liquid: separations relevant to rare-earth magnet recycling
Tom Vander Hoogerstraete,  Sil Wellens,  Katrien Verachtert and Koen Binnemans
Green Chem., 2013,15, 919-927

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