Green Chemistry Blog

The latest issue of Green Chemistry is now available to read online.

The front cover of this issue highlights a Critical Review by Tom Welton and colleagues from Imperial College London (UK) and Umeå University (Sweden) on the deconstruction of lignocellulosic biomass with ionic liquids.  The review begins by providing background information on ionic liquids and lignocellulosic biomass before going on to explore the solubility of lignocellulosic biomass in ionic liquids.  The also describes the destruction effects brought about by the use of ionic liquids as a solvent, before finally looking at the practical considerations for design of ionic liquid based deconstruction processes.

Deconstruction of lignocellulosic biomass with ionic liquids, Agnieszka Brandt, John Gräsvik, Jason P. Hallett and Tom Welton, Green Chem., 2013, 15, 550-583

The inside front cover features work by Robert Brown and Kaige Wang from Iowa State University, USA, who report the catalytic pyrolysis of microalgae for production of valuable petrochemicals and ammonia.  This promising microalgae biorefinery pathway (both from an economical and environmental point-of-view) used the HZSM-5 catalyst for pyrolysis to convert whole microalgae into aromatic hydrocarbons.  The ammonia produced in the process can be recycled as a fertilizer for microalgae cultivation.

Catalytic pyrolysis of microalgae for production of aromatics and ammonia, Kaige Wang and Robert C. Brown, Green Chem., 2013, 15, 675-681

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Green Chemistry issue 2, 2013, is now available to read online.

This issue features work by Enrique Herrero Acero, Georg Guebitz and co-workers from Austria who report the replacement of heavy-metal catalysts from paints.  Alkyd resins are polyesters containing unsaturated fatty acids which are used as binding agents in paints and coatings.  The chemical drying of these resins is based on crossing-linking the unsaturated fatty acid moieties using heavy-metal catalysts.  However, these catalysts have been proven to be carcinogenic and so research has been focused on finding less toxic and environmentally friendly alternatives.  The team here have developed a laccase-mediator system which not only performs well in aqueous media, but also in solid film.

Banning toxic heavy-metal catalysts from paints: enzymatic cross-linking of alkyd resins, Katrin J. Greimel, Veronika Perz, Klaus Koren, Roland Feola, Armin Temel, Christian Sohar, Enrique Herrero Acero, Ingo Klimant and Georg M. Guebitz, Green Chem., 2013, 15, 381-388

The inside front cover features work by Michael Meier and Maulidan Firdaus who have derived renewable polyamides and polyurethanes from limonene.  Addition of cysteamine hydrochloride to (R)-(+)- and (S)-(+)-limonene presented a versatile method to produce functionalised renewable monomers for polyamide and polyurethane synthesis.  Through various combinations, fatty acid, limonene and Nylon 6,6 copolymers were prepared. Diamines derived from limonene were efficiently transformed into dicarbamates viaa phosgene-free route, and linear renewable polyurethanes, with molecular weights of up to 12.6 kDa, were obtained through an isocyanate-free route.  The structure-thermal property relationships of these compounds were also studied.

Renewable polyamides and polyurethanes derived from limonene, Maulidan Firdaus and Michael A. R. Meier, Green Chem., 2013, 15, 370-380

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The last issue of 2012 of Green Chemistry is now published online.

The front cover of this months’ issue features work by Amit Naskar and colleagues from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA, who report the development of lignin-based thermoplastics.  Lignin is one of the most abundant natural polymers, and represents an valuable renewable resource.  Previous work into applications of this material found that it could be combined with flexible polymers to produce a variety of co-polymer materials.  However, these materials tended to be thermoset plastics and brittle materials and therefore are barely recyclable.  Here the team managed to create lignin-based co-polymer thermoplastics, which would be recyclable and potentially biodegradable as well.

Turning renewable resources into value-added polymer: development of lignin-based thermoplastic, Tomonori Saito, Rebecca H. Brown, Marcus A. Hunt, Deanna L. Pickel, Joseph M. Pickel, Jamie M. Messman, Frederick S. Baker, Martin Keller and Amit K. Naskar, Green Chem., 2012, 14, 3295-3303

The inside front cover highlights work by Yu Fan, Xiaojun Bao and colleagues from the China University of Petroleum (China) and the University of British Columbia (Canada) who report the synthesis of zeolite Y from natural aluminosilicate minerals for application in fluid catalytic cracking.  Modern industrial synthesis of zeolite Y involves chemicals that are derived from natural bauxite, but this requires an huge amount of energy and generates a lot of waste.  Here, zeolite Y could be synthesised directly from natural aluminosilicate minerals, avoiding the need of additional inorganic chemicals and relying instead on natural raw materials.  The resulting zeolite exhibited outstanding catalytic cracking performance.

Synthesis of zeolite Y from natural aluminosilicate minerals for fluid catalytic cracking application, Tiesen Li, Haiyan Liu, Yu Fan, Pei Yuan, Gang Shi, Xiaotao T. Bi and Xiaojun Bao, Green Chem., 2012, 14, 3255-3259

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