Green Chemistry Blog

Here are the latest HOT papers published in Green Chemistry, as recommended by the referees:

Soy-castor oil based polyols prepared using a solvent-free and catalyst-free method and polyurethanes therefrom
Chaoqun Zhang, Ying Xia, Ruqi Chen, Seungmoo Huh, Patrick A. Johnston and Michael R. Kessler  
Green Chem., 2013,15, 1477-1484, DOI: 10.1039/C3GC40531A

Carbon dioxide as a reversible amine-protecting agent in selective Michael additions and acylations
Annelies Peeters, Rob Ameloot and Dirk E. De Vos  
Green Chem., 2013,15, 1550-1557, DOI: 10.1039/C3GC40568K

Development of GSK’s reagent guides – embedding sustainability into reagent selection
Joseph P. Adams, Catherine M. Alder, Ian Andrews, Ann M. Bullion, Matthew Campbell-Crawford, Michael G. Darcy, John D. Hayler, Richard K. Henderson, Catriona A. Oare, Israil Pendrak, Anikó M. Redman, Leanna E. Shuster, Helen F. Sneddon and Matthew D. Walker  
Green Chem., 2013,15, 1542-1549, DOI: 10.1039/C3GC40225H

All the papers listed above are free to access for the next 4 weeks!

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.

© 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

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

Read some of the latest ‘HOT’ research to be published in Green Chemistry!  These articles are all free to access until the 11th March 2013:

Resolving the dilemma of gaining conductivity but losing environmental friendliness in producing polystyrene/graphene composites via optimizing the matrix-filler structure, Gucheng Long, Changyu Tang, Ka-wai Wong, Changzhen Man, Meikun Fan, Woon-ming Lau, Tao Xu and Bin Wang, Green Chem., 2013, DOI: 10.1039/C3GC37042A

Application of a recyclable fluorous oxime in the convenient synthesis of 3-amino-1,2-benzisoxazoles and 4-amino-1H-2,3-benzoxazines, Wei Jie Ang, Chi-Yuan Chu, Tzyy-Chao Chou, Lee-Chiang Lo and Yulin Lam, Green Chem., 2013, DOI: 10.1039/C3GC36966H

Catalytic applications of a versatile magnetically separable Fe–Mo (Nanocat-Fe–Mo) nanocatalyst, Manoj B. Gawande, Paula S. Branco, Isabel D. Nogueira, C. Amjad A. Ghumman, Nenad Bundaleski, Adérito Santos, Orlando M. N. D. Teodoro and Rafael Luque, Green Chem., 2013, DOI: 10.1039/C3GC36844K

One-step acrylation of soybean oil (SO) for the preparation of SO-based macromonomers, Pei Zhang and Jinwen Zhang, Green Chem., 2013, DOI: 10.1039/C3GC36961G

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UK scientists have developed a continuous photo-oxidation procedure of an allylic alcohol in supercritical carbon dioxide.

Malaria is one of the most infectious diseases in the world.  Some strains of malaria are becoming resistant to the traditionally used quinine based antimalarials, and so there is a need to develop new antimalarial drugs.  A common feature of some newly developed antimalarial compounds is the trioxane moiety, and a convenient way to introduce this group is via photochemically generated singlet oxygen species (¹O₂).  However the highlight reactive nature of this species can introduce problems when trying to scale-up the synthesis of these groups for industrial production, particularly in terms of identifying acceptable solvents (non-flammable and in-efficient ¹O₂ quenchers).

In this work, Martyn Poliakoff, Michael George and colleagues from the University of Nottingham, UK, have developed a continuous process for the sustainable synthesis of trioxones with  ¹O₂in supercritical CO₂.  The team also examined the remaining two steps in the synthesis of antimalarial trioxanes from readily available starting materials, and hope that this approach could lead to the exploration of libraries of different trioxanes as potential antimalarial agents.

Read the full article for free until the 9th January 2013!

Synthesis of antimalarial trioxanes via continuous photo-oxidation with ¹O₂ in supercritical CO₂, Jessica F. B. Hall, Richard A. Bourne, Xue Han, James H. Earley, Martyn Poliakoff and Michael W. George, Green Chem., 2013, DOI: 10.1039/C2GC36711D

You may also be interested in this article which is also free to access for a limited time:

Could the energy cost of using supercritical fluids be mitigated by using CO2 from carbon capture and storage (CCS)? James G. Stevens, Pilar Gómez, Richard A. Bourne, Trevor C. Drage, Michael W. George and Martyn Poliakoff, Green Chem., 2011, 13, 2727-2733

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