The issue showcases the innovative research towards the substitution of volatile organic solvents in solution phase synthesis. The series of articles presented in this themed issue are based on the keynote presentations at an international conference organised by Dechema, held in October 2010 in Berchtesgaden, Germany.
You can read Guest Editor Walter Leitner’s editorial online here and the full issue online here.
Professor Martyn Poliakoff
The RSC Prize Winners 2011 have recently been announced and Green Chemistry Board Members Martyn Poliakoff and James Clark have both been honoured. The RSC Prizes have been designed to be of the broadest relevance to the chemical sciences community as a whole, rewarding those whose careers are defined by exceptional work, excellence and dedication.
Professor Martyn Poliakoff from Nottingham University is Chair of the Green Chemistry Editorial Board. He was recently nominated to be the next Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society. Professor Poliakoff has been awarded the Nyholm Prize for Education which is for outstanding accomplishment in education relating to the chemical sciences. He was chosen due to his enthusiastic leadership in taking chemistry to the widest possible audience, using not only traditional channels but also the power of YouTube.
Professor James Clark
Professor James Clark was the founding Editor of Green Chemistry and is still involved with the journal on our Advisory Board. He has been awarded the Environment Prize which is for outstanding contributions to the chemical sciences in the area of environment, sustainability and energy (sponsored by Proctor & Gamble). Professor Clark was chosen for his fundamental and applied research contributions to the areas of green chemistry, clean technology and sustainability and for educational, publishing and public awareness contributions in the green chemistry area.
We would like to congratulate Professor Poliakoff and Professor Clark.
Have you registered for the 15th Annual Green Chemistry Conference? With over 600 attendees expected, this premier Conference showcases innovations in all aspects of sustainable chemistry. From June 21-23, mingle with US government representatives, Business executives, R&D managers, marketing and communication experts, sustainability thought leaders, chemical engineers, chemists, international & local students. Attend numerous breakout sessions, networking events while exploring Washington D.C in the summer.
Visit the conference website, www.gcande.org, for updated conference information and to:
Posted on behalf of Shefali Algoo, ACS Green Chemistry Institute.
Cheap and readily available photovoltaic cells have been used to conduct electrochemical oxidation reactions by Kevin D Moeller and co-workers from the Washington University in St Louis.
Connecting the dots
Oxidation reactions are among the most powerful tools available to synthetic chemists because they increase the level of functionality in a molecule. This study demonstrates that the energy efficiency of sunlight-driven reactions can be combined with the versatility of electrochemistry to create new, sustainable methods for conducting oxidation reactions.
Interested in knowing more? Read the full article here.
Connecting the dots: using sunlight to drive electrochemical oxidations
Laura A. Anderson, Alison Redden and Kevin D. Moeller
Green Chem., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1GC15207F
Martyn Poliakoff CBE FRS
Professor Martyn Poliakoff CBE has been nominated as the next Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society. Professor Poliakoff is the Chair of the Green Chemistry Editorial Board.
Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society is one of its most prestigious positions and the holder is responsible for building relationships around the world, particularly with other scientific academies, and ensuring that British Science and the Royal Society is recognised and promoted internationally. The post dates back to 1723 – predating the post of Foreign Secretary in the UK government by sixty years.
The appointment will not be official until the 7th of July when a ballot will be held and Fellows of the Royal Society asked to indicate their support, however, in keeping with tradition Professor Poliakoff is the only nominee.
As well as his duties for Green Chemistry, Professor Poliakoff is Research Professor of Chemistry at the University of Nottingham and one of the developers and regular presenters of the YouTube channel The Periodic Table of Videos where you can view a video in which Professor Poliakoff explains more about this appointment. You can also read a recent interview with Professor Poliakoff on the Green Chemistry blog.
Professor Poliakoff’s current research interests involve chemical applications of supercritical fluids, with particular emphasis on green chemistry, and a selection of his most recent Green Chemistry articles have been made free until the 7th of July when his post will be made official.
The 13 Principles of Green Chemistry and Engineering for a Greener Africa
Nigist Asfaw, Yonas Chebude, Andinet Ejigu, Bitu B. Hurisso, Peter Licence, Richard L. Smith, Samantha L. Y. Tang and Martyn Poliakoff
Green Chem., 2011, 13, 1059-1060, DOI: 10.1039/C0GC00936A, Editorial
Continuous heterogeneous catalytic oxidation of primary and secondary alcohols in scCO2
Adrian O. Chapman, Geoffrey R. Akien, Nicholas J. Arrowsmith, Peter Licence and Martyn Poliakoff
Green Chem., 2010, 12, 310-315, DOI: 10.1039/B913434D, Paper
Solubilisation of α-chymotrypsin by hydrophobic ion pairing in fluorous systems and supercritical carbon dioxide and demonstration of efficient enzyme recycling
Karima Benaissi, Martyn Poliakoff and Neil R. Thomas
Green Chem., 2010, 12, 54-59, DOI: 10.1039/B904761A, Paper
Strategies for cleaner oxidations using photochemically generated singlet oxygen in supercritical carbon dioxide
Xue Han, Richard A. Bourne, Martyn Poliakoff and Michael W. George
Green Chem., 2009, 11, 1787-1792, DOI: 10.1039/B914074C, Paper
A critical look at reactions in class I and II gas-expanded liquids using CO2 and other gases
Geoffrey R. Akien and Martyn Poliakoff
Green Chem., 2009, 11, 1083-1100, DOI: 10.1039/B904097H, Critical Review
Rapid screening of ionic liquids to determine their toxicity is now possible thanks to a modelling technique by scientists in Spain.
Ionic liquids (IL) – salts with low melting points – are being investigated as green alternatives to solvents, because their negligible vapour pressures result in minimal atmospheric contamination. However, their slight solubility in water poses a potential risk to aquatic ecosystems, as the toxicity of ILs is still relatively unknown.
Methods to predict the toxicity of unknown ILs would be very useful in IL research. Unfortunately, the only currently investigated method, quantitative structure-activity relationships, is labour intensive and time consuming.
The green fluorescent protein Vibrio fischeri in the background with ionic liquid structures
Now, Manuel Alvarez-Guerra and Angel Irabien at the University of Cantabria, in Santander, have devised a model to screen the toxicity of unknown ILs towards Vibrio fischeri, a standard bacterial assay for IL toxicity.
The technique uses toxicity data from 64 known cations and 30 known anions that can be combined to theoretically make 1920 unique ionic liquids. By applying partial least squares-discriminant analysis and using the toxicity of toluene as a threshold value, the potential hazards of all the possible ILs can be predicted. After ‘training’ their model using a standard set of toxicity data, the team was able to confirm the model’s accuracy with a test set, obtaining a non-error rate of 93 per cent.
‘This tool could easily guide the design effort [of ILs] from the earliest steps of the process,’ says Alvarez-Guerra, ‘so we can direct the effort towards ionic liquids that we think will be less toxic than the conventional solvents that they may replace.’
Gloria Elliott, an expert in the biocompatibility of ionic liquids at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, US, praises the novelty of the work. ‘Most of the [current] work has been looking at the structures and trying to deduce what functional groups or chain lengths would give rise to an enhanced toxicity,’ she explains. ‘But this takes the next step and starts to put it into computer language and enable more high-throughput processing,’ she adds.
However, she highlights that before the model can fulfil its potential, it needs to be tested against other datasets, such as toxicity data for cells of other species and higher organisms. Alvarez-Guerra agrees that this is the next step, but would rely on the availability of data.
Reproduced from a Chemistry World story written by Yuandi Li
Read the full article here:
Design of ionic liquids: an ecotoxicity (Vibrio fischeri) discrimination approach
Manuel Alvarez-Guerra and Angel Irabien, Green Chem., 2011
DOI: 10.1039/c0gc00921k
Chemical structures of the IL precursors used in this study: (a) 1-ethylpyridinium, (b) tributyl(2-hydroxyethyl)phosphonium and (c) bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate (docusate)
In this study Tony McNally and co-workers in Northern Ireland, Spain and the USA show that dual functional ionic liquids can uniquely provide both a plasticising effect for medical polymers, and exhibit antimicrobial and antibiofilm-forming activity to a range of antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) is widely used in the manufacture of a range of medical devices, including endotracheal tubes and catheters. The unique flexibility of PVC for use in such applications is derived from the use of phthalate esters as plasticisers. However, the possible carcinogenic and reprotoxic effects of phthalates has been a concern for some decades since their identification as an environmental contaminant. Another problem with medical devices is the risk of infection of indwelling medical devices as bacteria can colonise and form a biofilm on the surface. As device-related infections are recalcitrant to conventional antimicrobial therapy and host defences, alternative agents for their treatment are required. Ionic liquids have been shown in separate experiments to have antimicrobial activity and a plasticising effect on polymeric materials.
This study reports the design of two dual functional ionic liquids which uniquely provide a plasticising effect, and exhibit antimicrobial and antibiofilm-forming activity to a range of antibiotic resistant bacteria. The design approach adopted will be useful in developing ionic liquids as multi-functional additives for polymers.
Interested in knowing more? Read the full article here. Free until June 3rd.
Dual functional ionic liquids as plasticisers and antimicrobial agents for medical polymers
Seong Ying Choi, Héctor Rodríguez, Arsalan Mirjafari, Deirdre F. Gilpin, Stephanie McGrath, Karl R. Malcolm, Michael M. Tunney, Robin D. Rogers and Tony McNally
Green Chem., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1GC15132K
Carbon dioxide is used to promote the oxidation reactions of several cyclic alkenes
Carbon dioxide enhances the catalytic oxidation of cyclic alkenes, leading to higher conversions at low pressures, say researchers from South Korea. The system could be a step towards new technology for using CO2 at low pressures.
Sang-Eon Park and coworkers from Inha University, Incheon, prepared carbon nitrides that contain surface groups to activate the CO2, which was then used to promote the oxidation reactions of several cyclic alkenes.
CO2 is being recognised as an alternative and economic resource for use in organic reactions and it has been used in catalytic reactions, either as a solvent or a reagent. However, in most cases, it is used in a dense phase or under supercritical conditions, which require high operating pressures and have low reaction rates.
The team tested their system by oxidising different cyclic alkenes with various amounts of oxygen, with and without CO2, and compared the results. They found that the presence of the CO2 increased the conversion percentage in all cases. The CO2 acts as an oxygen source, which is inferred from the formation of carbon monoxide and surface carbamate. The team was also able to reuse the catalyst up to three times.
Chang-jun Liu from Tianjin University, China, an expert in catalysis and the use of greenhouse gases, says that using ‘high nitrogen containing carbon nitrides to enhance the oxidation of cyclic olefins with CO2 as a soft oxidant’ is significant. Liu adds that the work could lead to an easy approach for CO2 conversion with the production of highly-valued chemicals.
Park’s team now hopes to fully understand the reaction mechanism, explaining that this will help them to design a more appropriate catalyst. ‘Further spectroscopic and computational studies are in progress and hopefully, very soon, a complete insight over promotional aspects will be revealed,’ concludes Park.
Reproduced from a Chemistry World story written by Mary Badcock
Read the full article here:
CO2 activation and promotional effect in the oxidation of cyclic olefins over mesoporous carbon nitrides
Mohd Bismillah Ansari, Byung-Hoon Min, Yong-Hwan Mo and Sang-Eon Park
Green Chem., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0GC00951B
