Catalysis Science & Technology Blog

Incredible ionic liquids: an article collection

16 Jul 2012

A collection of high quality articles on the topic of ionic liquids from RSC Advances, Catalysis Science & Technology, PCCP and Green Chemistry.

Ionic liquids are pretty self explanatory; they are ionic materials in a liquid state. In a ‘normal’ liquid, interactions are usually governed by Van de Waals or H-bonding forces. In ionic liquids it is ionic bonding interactions which dominate, meaning ionic liquids possess some interesting and unique properties.

The field of ionic liquids grew after Paul Walden’s observations of ethylammonium nitrate in 1914,¹ since then the study and use of ionic liquids has grown phenomenally, with applications in analytics, biology, electrochemistry, physical chemistry, engineering, solvents and catalysis.

The academic and industrial interest in ionic liquids has thrown up some remarkable discoveries, particularly in recent years, so to keep you up to date with latest break-through research in the field we have collected these high quality articles which are free to access!*

Click here for the full list of free articles

Comments Off on Incredible ionic liquids: an article collection

Celebrating Catalysis in Munich

06 Jul 2012

By Jamie Humphrey, Editor.

Editor Jamie Humphrey reports back from the 15th International Congress on Catalysis, Munich, Germany

E-Posters at the ICC in Munich July 2012

E-posters provided an easier way to find one poster amongst the many.

The International Congress on Catalysis is arguably the largest international meeting focussed on catalysis, and, just like the Olympics, takes place every four years. This year, the 15th congress in the series was held in the Bavarian city of Munich, Germany. Munich was a well chosen venue. Not only is the city a excellent centre of research and technology, home to two major universities and a number of academic centres and research institutes, but also it has a vibrant cultural life, from opera to museums to excellent local cuisine and of course, fantastic beer!

Over 2200 delegates attended the meeting, which was exceptionally well organised, even down to the army of ushers who directed delegates to the last few empty seats in the lecture halls. Despite everyone’s best efforts, however, attendance was so good at this conference that not everyone could fit into the lecture hall and overflow lecture hall for the opening ceremony, and those arriving late were turned away.

One characteristic of this meeting was the vast number of posters that were presented. At times it seemed that whereever one turned, there was another poster to be read! It was great to see so many people involved in this way, and to have so many opportunities to learn about people’s research. At this conference I came across something that I have not seen before – some of the posters were not printed on paper or card, but on fabric instead (I suppose posters on fabric are easier to transport to the conference). For those delegates who could not find the poster they were looking for, there were a number of e-poster stations available, where electronic versions of the posters could be searched and displayed.

The conference highlighted the huge impact that catalysis has on our lives, and had 19 sessions covering topics such as: biomass conversion, catalysis via nanotechnology, catalysis for fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and organic transformations, photocatalysis, automobile catalysts, industrial implementation, green synthesis, computational catalysis, use of renewables via catalysis, catalysis in CO₂ capture, fuel cells, biocatalysis and advances in reactor technology.

Six plenaries, by Kazunari Domen, Philippe Sautet, Charles Kresge, Hans-Joachim Freund, Alex Bell and Roy Periana, introduced the sessions, as did a number of keynote lectures. Two awards were also celebrated at the conference, with the International Catalysis Award lecture given by Bert Weckhuysen, and the Heinz Heinemann Award given by Graham Hutchings.

It will be another four years until the 16th International Congress on Catalysis, and just like for the Olympics, it will be worth the wait!

To get a taste of the conference, and the exciting science discussed in Munich, read the Catalysis Science & Technology articles below, a selection of those published by the Plenary and Keynote speakers.

Modification of TaON with ZrO2 to improve photocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity under visible light: influence of preparation conditions on activity
Su Su Khine Ma, Kazuhiko Maeda and Kazunari Domen
Catal. Sci. Technol., 2012,2, 818-823
http://xlink.rsc.org/?DOI=10.1039/C2CY00499B

Selective oxidation of alkenes using graphite-supported gold-palladium catalysts
Salem Bawaked, Qian He, Nicholas F. Dummer, Albert F. Carley, David W. Knight, Donald Bethell, Christopher J. Kiely and Graham J. Hutchings
Catal. Sci. Technol., 2011,1, 747-759
http://xlink.rsc.org/?DOI=10.1039/C1CY00122A

Supramolecularly controlled surface activity of an amphiphilic ligand. Application to aqueous biphasic hydroformylation of higher olefins
Natacha Six, Antonella Guerriero, David Landy, Maurizio Peruzzini, Luca Gonsalvi, Frédéric Hapiot and Eric Monflier
Catal. Sci. Technol., 2011,1, 1347-1353
http://xlink.rsc.org/?DOI=10.1039/C1CY00156F

Tuning lipase activity with perfluoro carboxylic acids as additives
Carlos G. Acevedo-Rocha and Manfred T. Reetz
Catal. Sci. Technol., 2012, Advance Article
http://xlink.rsc.org/?DOI=10.1039/C2CY20173A

A detailed study of the diastereoselective catalytic hydrogenation of 6-hydroxytetrahydroisoquinoline-(3R)-carboxylic ester intermediates
Laurent Lefort, Natascha Sereinig, Harrie Straatman, David J. Ager, Johannes G. de Vries, John A. Werner, Roger B. Scherer, Todd D. Maloney, Mark D. Argentine, Kevin A. Sullivan and Jared W. Fennell
Catal. Sci. Technol., 2012, Advance Article
http://xlink.rsc.org/?DOI=10.1039/C2CY20251D

Acceptorless ruthenium catalyzed dehydrogenation of alcohols to ketones and esters
Saurabh Shahane, Cédric Fischmeister and Christian Bruneau
Catal. Sci. Technol., 2012,2, 1425-1428
http://xlink.rsc.org/?DOI=10.1039/C2CY20066J

Mechanistic insights in the olefin epoxidation with cyclohexyl hydroperoxide
Bart P. C. Hereijgers, Rudy F. Parton and Bert M. Weckhuysen
Catal. Sci. Technol., 2012,2, 951-960
http://xlink.rsc.org/?DOI=10.1039/C2CY00455K

Model Ag/HOPG catalysts: preparation and STM/XPS study
Demid V. Demidov, Igor P. Prosvirin, Alexei M. Sorokin and Valerii I. Bukhtiyarov
Catal. Sci. Technol., 2011,1, 1432-1439
http://xlink.rsc.org/?DOI=10.1039/C1CY00127B

Did you attend the 15th International Congress on Catalysis? Share your experiences below.

Comments Off on Celebrating Catalysis in Munich

In catalysis, size matters

05 Jul 2012

By Helen Lunn, Publishing Editor.

This article is HOT as recommended by the referees

Titania support dried at 120 °C

In this HOT article, Hutchings et al. investigate the effect of heat treatment to vary the metal particle size (2–20 nm) in Au-core–Pd-shell catalysts. They found that an “optimum size” is required for benzyl alcohol oxidation and hydrogen peroxide synthesis. A mild heat treatment (200 °C) also improved catalytic performance in addition to optimising the heat treatment process.

Catalysis Science & Technology receives its first immediacy index!

03 Jul 2012

By Matthew Cude, Development Editor.

The 2011 Journal Citation Reports ® (Thomson Reuters, 2012) have been released and Catalysis Science & Technology has received its first immediacy index* of 0.588!

As a newly launched journal Catalysis Science & Technology won’t receive it’s first impact factor until next year.

We would like to thank all our authors, readers and referees who have contributed towards this success. Our thanks also go to our Editorial and Advisory Board Members and our Associate Editors for all their hard work and dedication to the journal!

We look forward to continued growth and success of the journal in the coming years!

A full list of RSC successes can be found at the RSC Impact Factor release.

For more information about Catalysis Science & Technology, including how to submit your research, check out the journal homepage.

*The Immediacy Index is a measure of how topical and urgent work published in a scientific journal is. It is measured by dividing the number of citations made to articles in a journal in a given year by the number of citeable articles published in the journal for the same year.

Comments Off on Catalysis Science & Technology receives its first immediacy index!

Predicting nanoparticle shapes

29 Jun 2012

By Fiona McKenzie, Executive Editor.

There is so much research currently being dedicated to nanoparticle catalysts but how can we plan for how they will behave under different temperature conditions?

Amanda Barnard at CSIRO, Australia, has performed theoretical modelling, producing a nanoscale phase diagram that predicts the morphologies of a range of palladium nanocatalysts as a function of the number of atoms or diameter, and temperature.

It seems that under almost all conditions, monocrystalline shapes are thermodynamically preferred with the exception of particularly small nanoparticles at low temperatures, where multiply-twinned decahedra are stable.

To read more about Barnard’s findings, download the Catalysis Science & Technology article today – it’s free…

Mapping the shape and phase of palladium nanocatalysts
Amanda S. Barnard

Comments Off on Predicting nanoparticle shapes

Co-factor promiscuity

28 Jun 2012

By Kate Bandoo, Publishing Assistant.

Scientists from Australia have demonstrated that an enzyme can catalyse different chemistries from the same substrate depending on which co-factor is present. This is the first example of an enzyme showing indiscriminate behaviour for a co-factor, resulting in a different biocatalytic reaction.

Co-factors are the non-protein part of an enzyme which are essential for catalysing the reaction. By replacing the co-factor F₄₂₀ with a different co-factor, FMN, the F₄₂₀-dependent reductases oxidised the substrate instead of reducing it.

Co-factor, F₄₂₀, in FDR-catalysed aflatoxin degradation

This finding opens the door to a whole area of study devoted to examining how new co-factors can enable industrially-relevant reactions.

To read more, download the article now:

Cofactor promiscuity among F₄₂₀-dependent reductases enables them to catalyse both oxidation and reduction of the same substrate
Gauri V. Lapalikar, Matthew C. Taylor, Andrew C. Warden, Hideki Onagi, James E. Hennessy, Roger J. Mulder,
Colin Scott, Susan E. Brown, Robyn J. Russell, Chris J. Easton and John G. Oakeshott

Catal. Sci. Technol., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2CY20129A

Comments Off on Co-factor promiscuity

Generating the intermediates for glutamate antagonists

14 Jun 2012

By Matthew Cude, Development Editor.

A study of the diastereoselective catalytic hydrogenation of 6-hydroxytetrahydroisoquinoline-(3R)-carboxylic ester intermediates

Laurent Lefort and Jared W. Fennell with colleagues had developed a way to improve the diastereoselectivity from 75:25 to 95:5 for a key reaction in generating glutamate antagonists.

The team screened a range of heterogeneous catalysts and found a Pd/C catalyst which should raise the yield by 40% and reduce the costs of the reaction compared to a currently used process involving a rhodium catalyst.

Glutamate acts as a neurotransmitter and antagonists are highly sought in the pharmaceutical industry for development of new drugs and treatments. Improving the yields and selectivity of the reactions to produce these compounds is an important area for catalyst development.

More details can be found in the teams article below, which will be published in our upcoming themed issue focusing on catalysis in industry

l
A detailed study of the diastereoselective catalytic hydrogenation of 6-hydroxytetrahydroisoquinoline-(3R)-carboxylic ester intermediates
Laurent Lefort, Natascha Sereinig, Harrie Straatman, David J. Ager, Johannes G. de Vries, John A. Werner, Roger B. Scherer, Todd D. Maloney, Mark D. Argentine, Kevin A. Sullivan and Jared W. Fennell
Catal. Sci. Technol., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2CY20251D

Which will also include,

Advances in conversion of hemicellulosic biomass to furfural and upgrade to biofuels
Basudeb Saha, saikat dutta, Sudipta De and Imteyaz Alam
Catal. Sci. Technol., 2012, Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1039/C2CY20235B

Kinetic aspects and deactivation behaviour of chromia-based catalysts in hydrogen chloride oxidation
Amol P Amrute, Cecilia Mondelli and Javier Pérez-Ramírez
Catal. Sci. Technol., 2012, Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1039/C2CY20185B

Comments Off on Generating the intermediates for glutamate antagonists

Outstanding organocatalysis: An article collection

13 Jun 2012

By Matthew Cude, Development Editor.

A collection of high impact articles on organocatalysis from the RSC’s ChemComm, Catalysis Science & Technology, Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry (OBC) and Chem Soc Rev.

Catalysts are key to some of the most important reactions on the planet; a world without the Haber process or catalysts to crack crude oil is difficult to imagine. Not to mention the enzymatic reactions that are crucial to all life on earth.

Organocatalysts are an important class of catalyst and consist of carbon-based molecules often functionalised with oxygen, sulfur, nitrogen or phosphorus. They have shown promise in a range of reactions including hydrogenation, Diels-Alder, Michael and Mannich reactions, and are of particular interest in asymmetric reactions.

To help keep you up-to-date with the latest in cutting-edge organocatalytic research we have made the following articles free to access until the 9th July. After reading all these there will be little you won’t know about the exciting world of organocatalysis!

Click here for the full list of free articles

Comments Off on Outstanding organocatalysis: An article collection

At last… a route to 2nd generation Grubbs-methylidene complexes

06 Jun 2012

By Fiona McKenzie, Executive Editor.

This article is HOT as recommended by the referees

Catalysis Science & Technology Editorial Board member, Deryn Fogg and her team have found a way to synthesise methylidene derivatives of Grubbs-type second generation catalysts – intermediates in cross metathesis and ring-closing metathesis reactions.

The ability to isolate these complexes (which up until now has only been achieved in relatively low yields) creates an opportunity to gain mechanistic insight into olefin metathesis reactions.

Fogg and her team overcame the problematic low yields of the methylidene-second generation catalysts by taking a step backwards – they focused on the first generation Grubbs catalysts. Unlike, the second generation catalysts, methylidene derivatives of their first generation predecessors can be formed in quantitative yields. Clever ligand exchange of the PCy₃ ligand with free carbenes resulted in the desired second generation complex.

Download the full article to read more – it won’t close you a thing!

Targeting an Achilles heel in olefin metathesis: A strategy for high-yield synthesis of second-generation Grubbs methylidene catalysts
Justin A. M. Lummiss, Nicholas J. Beach, Jeffrey C. Smith and Deryn E. Fogg

For more catalysis research direct to your email inbox, register for the Catalysis Science & Technology e-alerts

Comments Off on At last… a route to 2nd generation Grubbs-methylidene complexes

Catalysis Science & Technology Blog

Incredible ionic liquids: an article collection

Celebrating Catalysis in Munich

In catalysis, size matters

Catalysis Science & Technology receives its first immediacy index!

Predicting nanoparticle shapes

Co-factor promiscuity

Top ten most accessed articles in May

Generating the intermediates for glutamate antagonists

Outstanding organocatalysis: An article collection

At last… a route to 2nd generation Grubbs-methylidene complexes

Links

Categories

Archives

Meta