Green Chemistry Blog

Issue 12 of Green Chemistry now published online

21 Nov 2012

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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C-H activation: an article collection

16 Nov 2012

By Mary Badcock, Deputy Editor.

A collection of high impact articles focusing on C-H activation, from the RSC’s Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry (OBC), Green Chemistry, ChemComm, RSC Advances, Chemical Science, Chem. Soc. Rev and Catalysis Science & Technology.

One of the simplest and most utilised chemical reactions is the burning of hydrocarbons and while combustion is an excellent way to exploit the energy content of this naturally occurring resource, there is a lot more we can do with the ‘inert’ C-H bond.

C-H activation allows us to convert cheaper hydrocarbon starting materials into more valuable and versatile products; leading to the development of a wide range of reagents and catalysts that activate C-H bonds. To keep you up to date with the latest developments in the field we have created this article collection, where all articles are free to download until 15^th December.

Click here fore the full list of free articles

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Copper-catalyzed C–C bond cleavage and intramolecular cyclization

13 Nov 2012

By Mary Badcock, Deputy Editor.

Chinese scientists have developed a new approach to synthesize acridones viacopper-catalyzed C–C bond cleavage and intramolecular cyclization.

C–C and C–H bond cleavage/activation has become a very important area of research in recent years due to the variety of possible applications. Presently, the cleavage of C–C bonds generally involves the use of noble metal catalysts such as Rh, Ry, Pd and Pt among others. However, there are very few examples in the current literature of cheaper metals such as copper or iron being employed in these transformations.

In this work, Wang Zhou and colleagues from Xiangtan University, China, used a copper catalyst and air as the oxidant to synthesize acridones through a C–C bond cleavage and intramolecular cyclization, under neutral conditions. This reaction provides an alternative strategy for C–C cleavage.

Read the full article for free until the 11th December 2012:

Copper-catalyzed C–C bond cleavage and intramolecular cyclization: an approach toward acridones, Wang Zhou, Youqing Yang, Yong Liu and Guo-Jun Deng, Green Chem., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2GC36502B

You may also be interested in these articles – free to access for 2 weeks:

Copper(II) catalysis provides cyclohexanone-derived propargylamines free of solvent or excess starting materials: sole by-product is water, Conor J. Pierce and Catharine H. Larsen, Green Chem., 2012, 14, 2672-2676

An efficient copper-catalyzed formation of highly substituted pyrazoles using molecular oxygen as the oxidant, Mamta Suri, Thierry Jousseaume, Julia J. Neumann and Frank Glorius, Green Chem., 2012, 14, 2193-2196

A highly efficient Cu-catalyst system for N-arylation of azoles in water, Deping Wang, Fuxing Zhang, Daizhi Kuang, Jiangxi Yu and Junhua Li, Green Chem., 2012, 14, 1268-1271

Microwave-assisted solvent- and ligand-free copper-catalysed cross-coupling between halopyridines and nitrogen nucleophiles, Zhen-Jiang Liu, Jean-Pierre Vors, Ernst R. F. Gesing and Carsten Bolm, Green Chem., 2011, 13, 42-45

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Meet our Authors: François Jérôme

09 Nov 2012

By Mary Badcock, Deputy Editor.

François Jérôme is a research director at the CNRS University of Poitiers, France. His research is focused on the catalytic activation of biomass and the subsequent conversion of the products to value-added chemicals. François took a few moments to chat to Green Chemistry to talk about the challenges facing this field of research…

Who or what initially inspired you to become a chemist?

When I was a kid, I was very curious and I always wanted to have a rational explanation on many natural phenomena such as volcanoes, earthquakes, storms, space, etc… Later, when I entered the University, I had the chance to attend the courses of Prof. Pierre Dixneuf. During three consecutive years, he taught me with enthusiasm and passion catalysis and organometallic chemistry. His courses really gave me the taste of chemistry.

What has been the motivation behind your recent research?

The depletion of fossil carbon reserves together with the continuous increase of the barrel price requires the society to imagine and design new and innovative strategies. In this context, fascinating works have recently been proposed that now open new fields to be explored in chemistry. In particular, the synthesis of fine chemicals and chemical platforms from non-edible resources has become a fascinating topic. Beside the green aspect of this approach, the biggest challenge faced by chemists consists in designing bio-based chemicals with superior performances than fossil-derived chemicals while respecting the essential requirements of economic competitiveness and social progress. The concept of green chemistry has dramatically changed the way we work and driven us to think about chemistry differently. In particular, the design of an atom economical or energy-saving process is not self-satisfied anymore and major other issues of green chemistry need to be addressed such as supply of renewable raw materials, structural variability of biomass, which plants for which markets, biodiversity, resource management (water, metal, carbon) and environmental impact of processes. All of these considerations are really motivating mainly because the successful design of a “green process” obviously requires close collaborations between researchers with different scientific horizons.

What do you see as the main challenges facing research in this area?

Click here to read the full interview

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“All-water” chemistry for synthesis of N-arylmethyl-2-substituted benzimidazoles

06 Nov 2012

By Mary Badcock, Deputy Editor.

Scientists from India have developed a tandem N-alkylation-reduction-condensation route to synthesize N-arylmethyl-2-substituted benzimidazoles.

1,2-Disubstituted benzimidazoles exhibit a broad range of biological activities, which make them a very popular synthetic target. The regio-specific synthesis of these compounds is the main synthetic challenge, with the desired regioselectivity of the final compounds determined at the aryl-amination stage. However, this traditionally requires a transition metal catalyst, expensive ligands and an appropriate base.

In this work, Asit Chakraborti and colleagues from the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Punjab, India, present a one-pot strategy to produce N-arylmethyl-2-substituted benzimidazoles in water. The procedure does not require a transition metal catalyst or base, with water directing the regioselectivity of the reaction through hydrogen bond mediated ‘electrophile-nucleophile dual activation’.

Read the full article for free until the 4th December 2012!

“All-water” chemistry of tandem N-alkylation–reduction–condensation for synthesis of N-arylmethyl-2-substituted benzimidazoles, Damodara N. Kommi, Dinesh Kumar, Rohit Bansal, Rajesh Chebolu and Asit K. Chakraborti, Green Chem., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2GC36377A

You may also be interested in this article as well – free to access for two weeks:

Catalytic procedures for multicomponent synthesis of imidazoles: selectivity control during the competitive formation of tri- and tetrasubstituted imidazoles, Dinesh Kumar, Damodara N. Kommi, Narendra Bollineni, Alpesh R. Patel and Asit K. Chakraborti, Green Chem., 2012, 14, 2038-2049

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Selective oxidation of alcohols and aldehydes over supported metal nanoparticles

31 Oct 2012

By Mary Badcock, Deputy Editor.

Oxidation represents one of the most important reactions in organic synthesis and looks to have a significant role on the development and synthesis of value-added chemicals from biomass. Efforts to make oxidation reactions more sustainable have led to the development of heterogeneous catalysts and the use of molecular oxygen an alternative to traditional, toxic chemical oxidants.

In this Critical Review, Robert Davis and colleagues from the University of Virginia, USA, evaluate the literature surrounding the use of supported metal nanoparticle catalysts for the selective oxidation of alcohols and aldehydes. Davis compares the performances of the catalysts studied in this review by categorising reaction rates based on the turnover frequency as a common, consistent denominator. The authors also look at factors that can affect the evaluation of reaction kinetics, such as catalyst deactivation, and give suggestions regarding how to obtain the best data.

Read this article for free until the 29th November 2012!

Selective oxidation of alcohols and aldehydes over supported metal nanoparticles, Sara E. Davis, Matthew S. Ide and Robert J. Davis, Green Chem., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2GC36441G

You may also be interested in these related articles – free to access until the 15th November 2012:

On the mechanism of selective oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural to 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid over supported Pt and Au catalysts, Sara E. Davis, Bhushan N. Zope and Robert J. Davis, Green Chem., 2012, 14, 143-147

Inhibition of gold and platinum catalysts by reactive intermediates produced in the selective oxidation of alcohols in liquid water, Bhushan N. Zope and Robert J. Davis, Green Chem., 2011, 13, 3484-3491

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Green Solvents for Synthesis 2012

27 Oct 2012

By Mary Badcock, Deputy Editor.

Sarah Ruthven, Editor of Green Chemistry, attended the 2012 Green Solvents for Synthesis Conference, held from the 8th-10th October 2012 in Boppard, Germany. The theme of this year’s installment of the biennial conference series was Advanced Concepts for Solution Phase Chemistry and Processes.

Professor Walter Leitner, Chair of the Green Chemistry Editorial Board, was Chairman of the organising committee, which also included Advisory Board members Professor Kenneth Seddon and Professor Peter Wasserscheid.

The focus of the conference was centre around energy-efficient processes, selectivity control for waste prevention, alternative and efficient use of raw materials, activation and capture of CO₂and integrated reaction and separation processes. The 3-day programme included 12 Keynote lectures delivered by internationally renowned experts and a poster session, where three of the top posters were awarded with prizes by the organising committee. One of these prizes was sponsored by Green Chemistry, and the recipient of was Mr Victor López-López for his poster on “Energy-efficient CO2-capture with solutions based on ionic liquids” (pictured second from the left). He was awarded with a certificate and a copy of Sustainable Solutions for Modern Economies.

Many congratulations to Victor on receiving this prize.

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Issue 11 of Green Chemistry now online

25 Oct 2012

By Mary Badcock, Deputy Editor.

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

Green Chemistry, issue 11, 2012, front cover The front cover of issue 11 of Green Chemistry features work my Pedro Lozano and colleagues from the University of Murcia, Spain, who report a clean bio-catalytic route to flavour esters. The team used switchable ionic liquid/solid phases as the reaction/separation media to achieve this, whereby a fully homogeneous liquid phase could be achieved at 50 °C and a solid-phase system could be created at room temperature. This allows the enzyme to function in the ionic liquid at temperatures compatible for enzyme catalysis, in this case giving almost 100% yields of flavour esters at 50 °C. By cooling and subsequent centrifugation, the liquid, almost pure, reaction product could be easily separated off leaving the biocatalyst/ionic liquid system in place which can then be reused for multiple cycles.

A clean enzymatic process for producing flavour esters by direct esterification in switchable ionic liquid/solid phases, Pedro Lozano, Juana M. Bernal and Alicia Navarro, Green Chem., 2012, 14, 3026-3033

The inside front cover of the issue features work by Joshua Taygerly, Emily Peterson and colleagues from Amgen Inc. and Northeastern University, USA, who have developed a guide which aims to help synthetic chemists find suitable and more environmentally friendly alternatives to a DCM-solvent system for chromatographic purification of compounds. The authors selected several ‘drug-like’ molecules which reflected the types of molecules regularly prepared and purified, tested several alternative solvent systems to DCM. From the results, they assembled a figure which allows the scientist to find the potentially equivalent, alternative system(s). The primary use of this guide is to provide chemists with a quickly identifiable starting point for selecting alternative solvent systems to DCM.

A convenient guide to help select replacement solvents for dichloromethane in chromatography, Joshua P. Taygerly, Larry M. Miller, Alicia Yee and Emily A. Peterson, Green Chem., 2012, 14, 3020-3025

These articles are free to access for 6 weeks!

You can also read Pedro Lozano’s recent interview with Green Chemistry here.

Stay up-to-date with the latest news and content in Green Chemistry by registering for our free table of contents alerts.

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Meet our Authors: Ken-ichi Shimizu

19 Oct 2012

By Mary Badcock, Deputy Editor.

Ken-ichi Shimizu is an Associate Professor of Catalysis Research Center at Hokkaido University, Japan. His research projects focus on heterogeneous catalysis for green organic reactions and automotive emission control. Ken-ichi kindly spared Green Chemistry a few moments to talk about his work…

Who or what initially inspired you to become a chemist?

In my childhood and youth I would see my father working as an eel farmer in front of my house. Farming is a kind of empirical science for improvement of the yield and quality of the products, and a working hypothesis is refined by the accumulation of empirical facts. Until I reached undergraduate level, chemistry was not a very attractive subject for me because I could not find the concept of hypothesis in the textbook. During my master and doctoral works at Nagoya University, I discovered experimental chemistry in the field of heterogeneous catalysis. Discussions with my supervisors and students as well as the accumulation of empirical facts lead to correction or revision of the hypothesis of reaction mechanism. This experience made me a chemist.

What was the motivation behind the research described in your recent Green Chemistry article? (Green Chem., 2012, 14, 984-991)

Click here to read the full interview…

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Green Chemistry Blog

Issue 12 of Green Chemistry now published online

C-H activation: an article collection

Copper-catalyzed C–C bond cleavage and intramolecular cyclization

Meet our Authors: François Jérôme

“All-water” chemistry for synthesis of N-arylmethyl-2-substituted benzimidazoles

Top ten most accessed articles in September

Selective oxidation of alcohols and aldehydes over supported metal nanoparticles

Green Solvents for Synthesis 2012

Issue 11 of Green Chemistry now online

Meet our Authors: Ken-ichi Shimizu

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