Catalysis Science & Technology Blog

Photocatalysis is a diverse field of study, bringing together research from a range of disciplines for a variety of applications. These include H₂ production, water remediation, carbon dioxide processing, sterilization and decomposition of unwanted organic compounds. Titania (TiO₂) is the most studied and used photo-catalyst, under UV-light electron-hole pairs are generated which in water produce hydroxyl radicals (^.OH), these are the active species in a number of processes.

One of the major draw-backs in using titania is that UV light constitutes less than 5% of solar energy, if they could be tuned to operate under visible light they would be far more versatile and effective photocatalysts. This Hot Perspective from Ranjit Koodali’s group reviews the doping of these materials with Lanthanides, detailing the structure activity relationships and drawing some interesting conclusions.

All articles in Catalysis Science & Technology are free to access for 2012 so you can download this article today.

Lanthanide modified semiconductor photocatalysts
Amanda S. Weber, Anne M. Grady and Ranjit T. Koodali Catal. Sci. Technol., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2CY00552B, Perspective

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Epoxides are used in the production of a wide range of compounds including resins, perfumes and polyethers among many others. The commercial synthesis of epoxides uses olefins, either through the chlorohydrin process or the hydroperoxide process. This Hot Article from Professor Bert Weckhuysen et al. details a mechanistic study on cyclohexene epoxidation with cyclohexyl hydroperoxide, the team performed the reaction over titanium grafted mesoporous silica.

Two competing reactions appear to occur, one producing the epoxide and the other yielding
cyclohexanone. As all articles are free to access in Catalysis Science & Technology for the duration of 2012 you can download this article now to see the proposed mechanistic pathways.

Mechanistic insights in the olefin epoxidation with cyclohexyl hydroperoxide
Bart P. C. Hereijgers, Rudy F. Parton and Bert M. Weckhuysen
Catal. Sci. Technol., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2CY00455K, Paper

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Catalytic hydrogen transfer (CTH) reactions have been around for a while and provide an alternative to traditional hydrogenation, where H₂ gas is applied under high pressure. Hydrogen donors include alcohols or formate salts while acceptors are unsaturated organic compounds, ketones, olefins and nitroaromatics among others. Ruthenium complexes are some of the most active homogeneous catalysts for CTH and a wide range have been developed over the last 40 years.

This Hot Article from Judith Toubiana and Yoel Sasson (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) details their investigation into the mechanism of CTH between alcohols and ketones using RuCl₂(PPh₃)₃, the pair have made a remarkable discovery regarding the actual active species in the reaction……and it isn’t the ruthenium complex.

As all Catalysis Science & Technology articles are free to access for the duration of 2012 you can download the paper now to find out what has been discovered and how.

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The true catalyst in hydrogen transfer reactions with alcohol donors in the presence of RuCl2(PPh3)3 is ruthenium(0) nanoparticles
Judith Toubiana and Yoel Sasson
Catal. Sci. Technol., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2CY00514J, Paper