Archive for the ‘Meet our Authors’ Category

Green Chemistry Emerging Investigators Series – Jun Xiang

Green Chemistry is proud to present the Green Chemistry Emerging Investigators Series, showcasing work being conducted by Emerging Investigators. This collection aims to highlight the excellent research being carried out by researchers in the early stages of their independent career from across the breadth of green chemistry.  For more information about this series, click here

The most recent contribution to this series, a communication article entitled A facile, general, and modular synthetic approach to biomass-based diols (DOI: 10.1039/D3GC03296E), introduces a novel method for synthesizing structurally diverse biomass-based diols (BDOs) in a facile and general manner. By providing access to BDOs without the need for catalysts and using mild reaction conditions, this method aims to advance the development of sustainable materials and promote the transition from petroleum-based to biomass-based chemicals.

The motivation behind this work was to develop a more efficient and sustainable method for biomass-based diols. The ultimate goal is to foster the advancement of sustainable materials, thus promoting a more eco-friendly and sustainable future.

Read our interview with the corresponding author below.

What aspects of this work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about it?

I’m excited about the establishment of a powerful approach towards the production of diols derived from biomass. This approach enables us to synthesize diols with analogous structures, thereby expediting our discovery of key performance-affecting factors and facilitating the fabrication of high-performance biomass-based materials.

The challenging aspect lies in pushing this technology from the lab side into the market and achieving the goal of replacing petroleum-based materials on a large scale.

What is the next step? What work is planned?

Our research group is deeply concerned with the efficiency and safety of material preparation, as well as the recyclability of as-prepared materials. In our future research efforts, we plan to design and synthesize biomass-based diols possessing unique functionalities, endowing their derived materials with exceptional durability and recyclability, and thus reducing the adverse impact on the environment.

Please describe your journey to becoming an independent researcher.

My scholarly journey commenced as a postgraduate student at the State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering at Sichuan University (SCU), Sichuan Province, China. It was during my doctoral studies at the University of Sherbrooke (UdeS) in Quebec, Canada, under the supervision of Prof. Yue Zhao, that I honed my expertise and skills. At UdeS, I engaged in pioneering work involving the design, synthesis, and biomedical applications of advanced functional materials derived from photo-responsive polymers. Seeking to further strengthen my training as a chemist and broaden my interdisciplinary research experiences, I embarked on a research endeavour within the laboratory of Prof. Haojun Fan at SCU, where I was acquainted with the realm of biomass-based polymeric materials and their environmentally sustainable manufacturing processes. These educational and collaborative experiences taught me how research labs work, how projects are conducted and how the lab is managed, and ultimately trained me to work as an independent researcher specializing in “biomass-based energy and materials”.

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

“Choosing an important problem.”

Why did you choose to publish in Green Chemistry?

Green Chemistry is a top-tier, highly respected journal in Chemistry with a broad readership and followers all over the world. This journal encourages the design and synthesis of safer chemicals, the use of renewable resources, and the minimization of waste and pollution. Our current article aligns perfectly with the scope of this journal; hence it has inspired me to publish our work in this prestigious journal.

Meet the author

Jun Xiang is an Associate Professor in the College of Biomass Science and Engineering at Sichuan University. He currently works on developing more efficient and eco-friendly methods to accelerate the substitution of petroleum-based chemicals with biomass feedstocks. Dr Xiang earned his MSE from Sichuan University in 2013 and later completed a PhD in chemistry at the University of Sherbrooke in 2018, supported by the merit scholarship program provided by FRQNT. His professional journey commenced in December 2018. Starting in 2022, he became a committee member at ACS South western China Chapter and leads the subject of biomass-based energy and materials.

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Featuring our paper: “The sustainability impact of Nobel Prize Chemistry: life cycle assessment of C–C cross-coupling reactions”

Published in Issue 25 and highlighted by Prof. Javier Pérez-Ramírez (Editorial Board Chair) and Dr. Michael Rowan (Executive Editor) for inclusion in our 25th Anniversary Collection, “The sustainability impact of Nobel Prize Chemistry: life cycle assessment of C–C cross-coupling reactionspaper is already receiving a great deal of attention in the community (DOI: 10.1039/D3GC01896B).

The paper presents a comprehensive study based on life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental profiles of carbon-carbon cross-coupling reaction (CCR) in terms of the materials involved and their energy consumption.

Cross-coupling reaction protocols are among the most important reactions for the synthesis of building blocks, and their great significance led to them being awarded the Nobel Prize in 2010. The objectives and value of this study were to evaluate the intrinsic potential of CCR protocols through LCA-based environmental assessment and to demonstrate that creation of large initial innovation likely multiplies to massive literature impact in the years after. The motivation behind this work was to help future innovations to be even more powerful with the authors hoping that this study will contribute to the improvement and optimization of future CCR research.

Read our interview with the corresponding authors below.

Could you briefly explain the focus of your article?

Life cycle assessment was conducted for the Nobel Prize of Chemistry 2010, inventing the C-C cross coupling, which was seminal for modern synthesis of innovative chemicals and pharmaceuticals. It was aimed to assess the original strategy only, and not how it was improved in the almost four decades after, separating idea and translation of idea.

How would you set this article in a wider context?

Sustainability is typically measured when innovations turn into applications, meaning one decade or more later. This also mean that the industrial translation of the innovation is assessed, rather than the innovation itself. We have developed an intrinsic sustainability assessment of the innovation itself, exemplified at the paramount Nobel Prize innovations.

Can you express your view on the importance of metrics and analysis (techno, economic, ecological, etc) to the chemistry community?

While metrical analysis can judge on the sustainability achievement of a chemical innovation after its demonstration, we see the true value in the assessment shaping a chemical idea during its nascence and guiding it in its early moments.

What aspects of this work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about it?

Knowing that Nobel Prize innovations have highest esteem and demand for ultimate seriousness in discussion, we are excited to arguably have made an informative and balanced assessment. Challenging was to separate intrinsic and extrinsic effects, seeing that we need to neglect the chemical yield for the first, while this is crucial value for any chemical synthesis and its metrics.

What is the next step? What work is planned?

We like to make a follow-up paper with more generalised methodology, meaning tailored metrics for intrinsic value of innovations; published in Green Chemistry journal. In addition we will aim to assess precise challenging real world molecules that have been prepared using this idea.

Why did you choose to publish in Green Chemistry?

It is a top-tier, highly respected journal in Chemistry, open for cross-discipline, blue sky research, and has transparent, professional journal management.

Meet the corresponding authors.  

Prof. Volker Hessel studied chemistry at Mainz University. In 1994, he went to the Institut für Mikrotechnik Mainz GmbH. In 2002, he was appointed as vice director of R&D at IMM and became director of R&D in 2007 and in 2005, he started working at the Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands. He has been working at the University of Adelaide, Australia, as deputy dean (research) at the ECMS faculty and professor in pharmaceutical engineering since 2018, and as a part-time professor University of Warwick/UK since 2019.

Volker received the AIChE Excellence in Process Development Research Award, IUPAC ThalesNano Prize in Flow Chemistry. He is program lead in the ARC Centre of Excellence Plants for Space (P4S), and is Research Director of the Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources. He received several EU’s research excellence grants (ERC Advanced/Proof of Concept/Synergy, FET OPEN). He was authority in a 35-teamed Parliament Enquete Commission “Future Chemical Industry”.

Prof. Luigi Vaccaro is a Full Professor at the University of Perugia where he is leading the Green S.O.C. group, http://greensoc.chm.unipg.it. He is Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) and he is currently appointed as Associate Editor of the RSC Advances and of Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry. His recognitions comprise the Europa Medal from the Society of Chemical Industry – London (2001), the ADP Award from Merck’s Chemistry Council for “Creative work in organic chemistry” (2006 and 2007), the G. Ciamician Medal of the Società Chimica Italiana (2007), the Lady Davis (2018) Visiting Professorship, the Pino Medal from the Organic and Industrial Divisions of the Italian Chemical Society. His research is aimed at developing different aspects of chemistry to define sustainable and optimized chemical processes. Luigi has published over 260 scientific contributions with an H-index of 58, and about 9000 citations.

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Magdalena Titirici speaks to Chemistry World about her research on biowaste conversion

Magdalena Titirici is interviewed in Chemsitry Word

Magdalena Titirici speaks to Green Chemistry Deputy Editor Anna Simpson in a recent Chemistry World interview.

Magdalena joined the School of Engineering and Materials Science at Queen Mary, University of London, UK, as a reader in materials science at the beginning of 2013. Before that, she spent over six years leading the sustainable materials for renewable energy group at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, Germany. Research in the Titirici group involves trying to create porous carbon materials from renewable resources such as lignin, cellulose and chitin, as well municipal and agricultural wastes.

Click here to read the interview with her in Chemistry World, where she discusses her not only her research, but also her love of photography, street art and the electronic music scene!

Some of Magdalena’s most recent Green Chemistry papers are listed below. We’ve made these papers free to access for the next 2 weeks, so click on the links below to find out more about Magdalena’s research…

Original design of nitrogen-doped carbon aerogels from sustainable precursors: application as metal-free oxygen reduction catalysts, Nicolas Brun, Stephanie A. Wohlgemuth, Petre Osiceanu and Magdalena M. Titirici, Green Chem., 2013,15, 2514-2524, DOI: 10.1039/C3GC40904J

A one-pot hydrothermal synthesis of sulfur and nitrogen doped carbon aerogels with enhanced electrocatalytic activity in the oxygen reduction reaction, Stephanie-Angelika Wohlgemuth, Robin Jeremy White, Marc-Georg Willinger, Maria-Magdalena Titirici and Markus Antonietti, Green Chem., 2012,14, 1515-1523, DOI: 10.1039/C2GC35309A

A one-pot hydrothermal synthesis of tunable dual heteroatom-doped carbon microspheres, Stephanie-Angelika Wohlgemuth, Filipe Vilela, Maria-Magdalena Titirici and Markus Antonietti, Green Chem., 2012,14, 741-749, DOI: 10.1039/C2GC16415A

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Meet our Authors: Cinzia Chiappe

Photo of Cinzia ChiappeCinzia Chiappe is a Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Pisa, Italy.  Her research interests primarily focus on ionic liquids and their biological and physic chemical properties.  The ultimate goal of her research is to design optimised ionic liquids as solvents and/or catalysts for sustainable chemical reactions.  Cinzia took a few moments to chat to Green Chemistry

Who or what initially inspired you to become a chemist?

During my studies I was at first attracted by mathematics and biology and I thought I would become a “biologist”. Subsequently, in the last years of high school, my interest moved towards the single mechanisms that determine and govern the life on this planet. I discovered my interest for “molecules” and their interaction ability and so I decided to study chemistry. I therefore became an Organic Chemist.

What has been the motivation behind your recent research?

As an organic chemist, I studied reactivity and reaction mechanisms. At the beginning of this century (1999-2000), I discovered the fascinating world of ionic liquids and immediately I was attracted by these compounds for the copious challenges and potentialities that they offer to a researcher involved in “organic reactivity”. The subsequent step, from ionic liquids to “green chemistry”, was only a short step.

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

The main challenges are related to the possibility of resolving some strategic problems for this society, i.e. the depletion of our principal source of energy and organic compounds (fossil fuels) as well as the depletion of other important primary materials (some metals and metal salts).

Where do you see the field of green chemistry being in 5 or 10 years time?

I think that green chemistry and the application of its principles in different areas (energy, material sciences, waste disposal and so on) can become a strategic approach (probably, the only one) to overcome the problems characterizing this “small” planet with “many” inhabitants and “few” resources. Of course, small, many and few are strictly related quantities.

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

I don’t know, but probably an “archistar” – a superstar architect.

Take a look at a few of Cinzia’s recent Green Chemistry articles below – all free to access:

A dramatic effect of the ionic liquid structure in esterification reactions in protic ionic media, Cinzia Chiappe, Sunita Rajamani and Felicia D’Andrea, Green Chem., 2013, 15, 137-143

Synthesis and properties of trialkyl(2,3-dihydroxypropyl)phosphonium salts, a new class of hydrophilic and hydrophobic glyceryl-functionalized ILs, Fabio Bellina, Cinzia Chiappe and Marco Lessi, Green Chem., 2012, 14, 148-155

Styrene oxidation by hydrogen peroxide in ionic liquids: the role of the solvent on the competition between two Pd-catalyzed processes, oxidation and dimerization, Cinzia Chiappe, Angelo Sanzone and Paul J. Dyson, Green Chem., 2011, 13, 1437-1441*

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

*Article free to access until the 13th February 2013.

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Meet our Authors: François Jérôme

Picture of François JérômeFrançois Jérôme is a research director at the CNRS University of Poitiers, France.  His research is focused on the catalytic activation of biomass and the subsequent conversion of the products to value-added chemicals.  François took a few moments to chat to Green Chemistry to talk about the challenges facing this field of research…

Who or what initially inspired you to become a chemist?

When I was a kid, I was very curious and I always wanted to have a rational explanation on many natural phenomena such as volcanoes, earthquakes, storms, space, etc… Later, when I entered the University, I had the chance to attend the courses of Prof. Pierre Dixneuf. During three consecutive years, he taught me with enthusiasm and passion catalysis and organometallic chemistry. His courses really gave me the taste of chemistry.

What has been the motivation behind your recent research?

The depletion of fossil carbon reserves together with the continuous increase of the barrel price requires the society to imagine and design new and innovative strategies. In this context, fascinating works have recently been proposed that now open new fields to be explored in chemistry. In particular, the synthesis of fine chemicals and chemical platforms from non-edible resources has become a fascinating topic. Beside the green aspect of this approach, the biggest challenge faced by chemists consists in designing bio-based chemicals with superior performances than fossil-derived chemicals while respecting the essential requirements of economic competitiveness and social progress. The concept of green chemistry has dramatically changed the way we work and driven us to think about chemistry differently. In particular, the design of an atom economical or energy-saving process is not self-satisfied anymore and major other issues of green chemistry need to be addressed such as supply of renewable raw materials, structural variability of biomass, which plants for which markets, biodiversity, resource management (water, metal, carbon) and environmental impact of processes. All of these considerations are really motivating mainly because the successful design of a “green process” obviously requires close collaborations between researchers with different scientific horizons.

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

Click here to read the full interview

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Meet our Authors: Ken-ichi Shimizu

Ken-ichi Shimizu is an Associate Professor of Catalysis Research Center at Hokkaido University, Japan. His research projects focus on heterogeneous catalysis for green organic reactions and automotive emission control. Ken-ichi kindly spared Green Chemistry a few moments to talk about his work…

Who or what initially inspired you to become a chemist?

In my childhood and youth I would see my father working as an eel farmer in front of my house. Farming is a kind of empirical science for improvement of the yield and quality of the products, and a working hypothesis is refined by the accumulation of empirical facts. Until I reached undergraduate level, chemistry was not a very attractive subject for me because I could not find the concept of hypothesis in the textbook. During my master and doctoral works at Nagoya University, I discovered experimental chemistry in the field of heterogeneous catalysis. Discussions with my supervisors and students as well as the accumulation of empirical facts lead to correction or revision of the hypothesis of reaction mechanism. This experience made me a chemist.

What was the motivation behind the research described in your recent Green Chemistry article? (Green Chem., 2012, 14, 984-991)

Click here to read the full interview…

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Meet our Authors: Liang-Nian He

Liang-Nian He Liang-Nian He is a Professor at Nankai University in China.  His research interests current revolve around carbon dioxide (CO2) chemistry (capture and utilization) and sustainable synthetic chemistry.  Liang-Nian He kindly took a few moments to chat to Green Chemistry

Who or what initially inspired you to become a chemist?

The life of an academic is simple and straightforward and I enjoy working in an academic environment. I became interested in learning chemistry at the age of 12 in junior high school, which aroused my curiosity to know what happens behind such phenomena such as combustion of magnesium in oxygen, and the color change in the acid-base reaction. However, there was very little science education at that time. When I continued my college education, chemistry was taught formally, and my interest developed further. I was so fascinated by the nature of matter and had such a strong passion to understand all the interesting things in nature at the molecular level. Chemistry is such a powerful tool that can create almost anything you want. Accordingly, I definitely pursue a career in the field of chemistry when I was conscious of fundamental importance of chemistry to our society from drugs to dyes, from food to clothing.

What has been the motivation behind your recent research?

Chemical utilization of CO2 as a feedstock, promoter or reaction media for producing materials and fuels is attractive as an integral part of the carbon cycle. In particular, establishing large-scale production using CO2 in industry would be a fascinating dream for synthetic chemists. I am very grateful to Professor Toshiyasu Sakakura (National Institute of Advanced Industry Science and Technology, Japan) for introducing me to this emerging state of the art and exciting field of chemistry.

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

Click here to read more…

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Meet our Editorial Board: Walter Leitner (Chair)

Walter Leitner is a full Professor at Technische Chemie und Petrolchemie, Institut für Technische Chemie und Makromolekulare Chemie at the RWTH Aachen University and is the new Chair of the Green Chemistry Editorial Board.  As Walter takes up his new position, we asked for his thoughts on how sees the Journal, and the area of green chemistry, developing in the future…

Who or what initially inspired you to become a chemist?

I cannot fix this to a single person or event. To be honest, a large number of coincidences and external factors led me to study chemistry at Regensburg University, and it was mostly during my time as PhD-student with Henri Brunner and PostDoc with John Brown that I developed a strong research interest into catalysis and organometallic chemistry – and started to become fascinated by the idea of academic freedom!

You’ve recently been appointed as the new Chair of the Green Chemistry Editorial Board – what most excites you about the Journal?

The ever increasing scientific quality of the contributions and the incredible enthusiasm of the community – just coming back from the Green Chemistry Gordon Conference near Lucca in Italy, I am still nurtured by the same experience there!

Where would you like to see the Journal develop during your time as Chair?

Click here to read more…

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An interview with Martyn Poliakoff

Martyn Poliakoff is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Nottingham, and the out-going Chair of the Green Chemistry Editorial Board.  As he steps down after leading the Journal for the last six years, Martyn took a few moments to talk to us about how he was inspired to become a chemist and how he sees the field of green chemistry developing in the future…

Who or what initially inspired you to become a chemist?

My father and grandfather were physicists.  From as young as I can remember, it was always assumed that I would become a scientist.  I was lucky to have inspirational physics and chemistry teachers, David Hepburn-Scott and Tony Roberts.  I was not good enough at maths to become a physicist but Tony Roberts really inspired me to focus on chemistry and I am still in contact with him nearly 50 years later.  (Find out more here)

What have you enjoyed most during your time as Chair of the Editorial Board of Green Chemistry?

I have really enjoyed meeting a variety of green chemists and also it has been a pleasure to promote the Journal across the world. 

What do you consider to be the most significant development on the Journal during your time as Chair?

I think there have been three important developments during my tenure.  Firstly, the greatly increased Impact Factor; the friendly rivalry with ChemComm has been a great spur to us all. Secondly, the increased rejection rate (including at least one paper of mine!) indicates not only that the Journal has become a more attractive place to publish but also that the standard of Green Chemistry publications is increasing.  Thirdly, the appearance of at least three new journals in this area clearly demonstrates that the foresight of the RSC in recognising the potential of green chemistry.  I am determined that our Journal shall remain the market leader.

What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the field of green chemistry?

Click here to read more…

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Meet our Authors: Francesca Kerton

Francesca Kerton is Associate Professor of Green Chemistry at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada.  Her research into green chemistry encompasses three main themes: catalysis (including organometallic chemistry), solvent replacement (including supercritical fluids) and renewable feedstocks.  Fran kindly spared a few moments to chat to Green Chemistry

Who or what initially inspired you to become a chemist?

When I was very young, like many other children, I played in the garden making mud-pies and would attempt to make perfumes using the flowers there. I always liked to get my hands dirty and was a bit of a tomboy. At the root of this, I think I really wanted to understand how things worked, what they were made from and if you could turn them into something else. So in that regard, nature was my inspiration. When I was older and began secondary school, some of our first practical classes involved separations and paper chromatography. These also included looking at isolating chlorophyll and other natural products from plants. My school had excellent chemistry teachers, who would go the extra mile to explain things and challenge the bright students. Most importantly, they made what we were learning relevant to everyday life. I have very fond memories of my GCSE and A-Level Chemistry teachers, Ms. Jones and Mr. Woodstock, and they definitely inspired me to pursue a career in chemistry.

What was the motivation behind the research described in your recent Green Chemistry article?

I have been interested in ‘green’ solvents for sometime and water, ionic liquids and carbon dioxide have all been used in my group recently. I relocated to Newfoundland in Canada from the UK in 2005. In the UK, I had been involved with the Green Chemistry Group at York and had just started to perform research using renewable feedstocks to make new materials and compounds. Historically, Newfoundland had a large fishing industry and it still has a vibrant fishing community, particularly in both catching and farming shellfish. I knew that this industry would produce a number of by-products and I was particularly interested in seeing whether we could add value to these. In particular, could chitin (the biopolymer in the shells of crustaceans) be depolymerized under green conditions and produce useful compounds? We also wanted to keep things cheap and simple, therefore, we decided to look at reactions of chitin and chitosan in water using commercially available catalysts. We found that the results with chitosan were not that different to those that had been obtained using cellulose as a feedstock, namely, we obtained levulinic acid and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural as the primary products (Green Chemistry, 2012, 14, 1480-1487).  This gives me some hope that ocean-sourced biomass can be used as a feedstock in future biorefineries alongside land-sourced materials.

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

Industrial implementation of new, green ideas is of course important for the success of this field. However, this could be helped if more industries were a little more transparent and made us aware of their real problems. I think the ACS GCI pharmaceutical roundtable has helped green chemists at universities focus their attention on real rather than imagined problems. It would be great to see this approach extended to other industries including those where perhaps the beneficial role that green chemistry could play is perhaps less obvious e.g. food industry and mining industry. Also, collaboration across the sub-disciplines is really important for the development of this field.  There are some problems here, for example, the units and language used by chemical engineers is different to that used by chemists – so we need to make an effort and be patient with each other in order to solve important problems and achieve our goals.

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

I am an optimist and see the field growing enormously and becoming a global endeavor. I see more collaborations across disciplines and the establishment of worldwide research networks to tackle some of the key problems of sustainability such as universal access to a clean water supply.

And finally…

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

I love music. At high school and as an undergraduate, I sang in a band. I don’t think I would have had what it takes to do that for a living but I would have liked to be involved behind the scenes in the music industry or be a promoter of shows and concerts or an event planner.

Take a look at a couple of Fran’s recent Green Chemistry articles – free to access until the 8th August:

Hydrolysis of chitosan to yield levulinic acid and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural in water under microwave irradiation, Khaled W. Omari, Jessica E. Besaw and Francesca M. Kerton, Green Chem., 2012, 14, 1480-1487

Synthesis of Pd nanocrystals in phosphonium ionic liquids without any external reducing agents, Hassan A. Kalviri and Francesca M. Kerton, Green Chem., 2011, 13, 681-686

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

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