RSC Advances Blog

One goal of nanoparticle synthesis is to produce the lowest possible polydispersity – in other words, the best possible average size distribution. ‘Greener’ routes to achieve this without harmful solvents and capping agents often come from the natural world. In this case Graham Hutchings at Cardiff University, UK, plus collaborators in Bristol, UK, and Niigata, Japan, have used chitosan, a derivative of natural chitin found in crab and shrimp shells, to template the formation of supported gold-palladium nanoparticles.

These precious alloys are used as catalysts in the solventless aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde, an important class of reactions in the fine chemicals industry.

Hutchings and co-workers have previously found supported gold-palladium catalysts to be most active and stable for a range of other reactions including direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide from H₂ and O₂, and for the oxidation of polyols such as glycerol. It is to be hoped that the new chitosan-templated synthesis will pave the way for new, greener routes to commercial scale production of fine chemical intermediates, for example allowing the replacement of traditional oxygen donors like chromate or permanganate.

To find out more, read about the work in RSC Advances for free:

Biotemplated synthesis of catalytic Au–Pd nanoparticles, Simon R. Hall, Andrew M. Collins, Natalie J. Wood, Wataru Ogasawara, Moataz Morad, Peter J. Miedziak, Meenakshisundaram Sankar, David W. Knight and Graham J. Hutchings, RSC Adv., 2012, 2, 2217–2220

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By Sara Coles

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are at the forefront of cutting edge research in a variety of fields.  In recent years, they have attracted the attention of plant biologists as potential molecular transporters, due to their intrinsic ability to cross the cell membrane of different types of mammalian cells as drug and gene delivery vehicles. 

In this review, Maged Serag and collaborators from Saudi Arabia, Japan and France discuss the ability of single-walled CNTs (SWCNTs), multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs) and cup-stacked CNTs (CSCNTs) to penetrate through plant cell walls, target specific organelles, probe protein-carrier activity and induce organelle recycling in plant cells.  For example, they show that subcellular localisation of CNTs is strongly dependent on the length of the CNTs and the nature of the functional tag adsorbed onto the outer surface.  The property is particularly important for plant biotechnology and agricultural scenarios where payloads could potentially be delivered to specific subcellular organelles. 

The potential of CNTs to cross plant cell walls for various, specific purposes could open up an enormous array of applications in the fields of plant biotechnology and agricultural biology from the entire plant level down to the cellular and molecular level.

Read this article for free until the 21st February 2013!

Nanobiotechnology meets plant cell biology: carbon nanotubes as organelle targeting nanocarriers, Maged F. Serag, Noritada Kaji, Satoshi Habuchi, Alberto Bianco and Yoshinobu Baba, RSC Adv., 2013, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA22766E

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During January, many people will be attempting to ‘de-tox’ – to get rid of the feeling of all those unpleasant residues lingering in the body from the holiday season’s excesses.

Back in the world of chemistry, it is just as important (and considerably simpler!) to ‘de-tox’. You don’t need a diet guru – you just need some clever catalysts. Waste water treatment is one example of an area where chemists are applying their skills to remove organic contaminants (such as light-stable dyes used in the textile industry) from effluent that will be released into the environment.

For example, a project by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, along with collaborators at Texas A&M University and The University of Texas at Dallas, both in the USA, has been working on a new approach to create gold, palladium and platinum nanocrystals decorated on biodegradable cellulose polymer coated with polypyrrole. Their Pd-decorated fibre materials could catalyse the degradation/reduction of methylene blue (a waste water simulator) to leucomethylene blue at room temperature in aqueous media.

The authors claim that their technique can reduce the amount of nondegradable polymer (polypyrrole) by at least 80%, and that the same type of particles may be suitable for application in sensors, fuel cells, medical devices and other technologies.

To find out more, read about the work in RSC Advances – access this article for free!

Novel Pd based catalyst for the removal of organic and emerging contaminants, Mallikarjuna N. Nadagouda, Ishan Desai, Carlo Cruz and Duck J. Yang, RSC Adv., 2012, 2, 7540–7548

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By Sara Coles

It’s now over 30 years since titanium dioxide (TiO₂) was first discovered to possess remarkable photocatalytic activity, but interest in this material has not declined.  However, despite its high photocatalytic activity, practical applications of TiO₂ have been limited due to it’s low quantum efficiency of overall natural sunlight and inferior utilization ratio of visible light.

Recent research in this material has therefore been focused on modifying the structural, optical and electrical properties of TiO₂ in order to diversify it’s applications.  In this work, Jinlong Gong and colleagues from Tianjin University, China, combined several modification strategies to achieve nitrogen-doped Ag/TiO₂hollow spheres with particle diameters of about 100 nm. 

These particles were stable under high temperature treatment and have a relatively large surface area compared to similar materials from previous studies.  The N-doped Ag/TiO₂hollow spheres exhibited higher photocatalytic activity for the degradation of dye compounds than pure TiO₂ hollow spheres.

Read this article for free until the 7th February 2013!

N-doped Ag/TiO2 hollow spheres for highly efficient photocatalysis under visible-light irradiation, Jianwei Lu, Fengli Su, Zhiqi Huang, Chengxi Zhang, Yuan Liu, Xinbin Ma and Jinlong Gong, RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 720-724

In this review article Min Shi and colleagues from the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry and the East China University of Science and Technology, China, review the developments and advances in palladium-catalyzed asymmetric additions over the last five years.

Pd-catalyzed additions are key reactions to access a range of important intermediate compounds. Here, Shi summarises the developments in Pd-catalyzed 1,2-additions, 1,4-additions and asymmetric cycloadditions. These reactions are powerful, well-established tools for the stereoselective construction of C–C and C–X (X = O or N) bonds.

Read the full article for free until the 31st January 2013:

Development of Pd catalyzed asymmetric additions in the last five years, Yin-wei Sun, Peng-long Zhu, Qin Xu and Min Shi, RSC Adv., 2013, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA22674J

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