Green Chemistry Blog

Following the success of Peer Review Week in September 2016 (dedicated to reviewer recognition) during which we published a list of our top reviewers, we are delighted to announce that we will continue to recognise the contribution that our reviewers make to the journal by announcing our Outstanding Reviewers each year.

We would like to highlight the Outstanding Reviewers for Green Chemistry in 2016, as selected by the editorial team, for their significant contribution to the journal. The reviewers have been chosen based on the number, timeliness and quality of the reports completed over the last 12 months.

We would like to say a big thank you to those individuals listed here as well as to all of the reviewers that have supported the journal. Each Outstanding Reviewer will receive a certificate to give recognition for their significant contribution.

We would also like to thank the Green Chemistry board and the Green Chemistry community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

If you would like to become a reviewer for our journal, just email us with details of your research interests and an up-to-date CV or résumé.  You can find more details in our author and reviewer resource centre

In celebration of Peer Review Week, with the theme of Recognition for Review – we would like to highlight the top 10 reviewers for Green Chemistry in 2016. They have been selected by the editor for their significant contribution to the journal.

Top 10 reviewers for Green Chemistry
Dr Feng Lu, University of Utah
Dr Yasuyuki Kita, Ritsumeikan University
Dr Jean Jacques Vanden Eynde, University of Mons-UMONS
Dr Nicholas E. Leadbeater, University of Connecticut
Dr Mark A. Harmer, SAC Tech Innovations
Dr Francois Jerome, Universite de Poitiers
Dr Zhijie Wu, China University of Petroleum
Professor Robin D. Rogers, McGill University
Dr Alistair King, University of Helsinki
Professor Luigi Vaccaro, Universita di Perugia

We would like to say a massive thank you to these reviewers as well as the Green Chemistry board and all of the community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

Rare earth metals are notoriously hard to separate from one another, due to the similarity of their chemical properties. At present, the complex series of solvent extraction steps to extract rare earths from their ores are only carried out in China. With their increasing utilisation in modern technologies, scientists have been collaborating to develop cleaner less intensive methods of rare earth separation.

Tom Van Gerven and Koen Binnemans of the University of Leuven in Belgium have worked together to combine their expertise and develop a photochemical method for extracting the europium and yttrium from an ionic liquid solution. Both elements are present in their trivalent state, but if europium absorbs light of the correct wavelength (provided by a low pressure mercury lamp) it will reduce to the divalent state and be precipitated out.

Want to know more?

Read the full article in Chemistry World by Jonathan Midgley.

Or, take a look at the original article which is free to access until 8th July 2015:

“Photochemical recycling of europium from Eu/Y mixtures in red lamp phosphor waste streams” by B Van den Bogaert et al., DOI:10.1039/c4gc02140a