The new basket-shaped scaffolds were fully characterised, and the proposed supramolecular organisation displays needle shaped, focal conic, rod like and schlieren textures (see image).
Read the full article for free until the 25th March 2013!
Synthesis, mesomorphism and dielectric behaviour of novel basket shaped scaffolds constructed on lower rim azocalix[4]arenes, Pinkesh G. Sutariya, Nishith R. Modi, Alok Pandya, V. A. Rana and Shobhana K. Menon, RSC Adv., 2013, DOI: 10.1039/C3RA22422H
If asked to name a promising element to contribute to highly efficient, clean energy, few chemists would immediately think of lead.
Meanwhile Yuan-Yuan Feng and colleagues, at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, have worked with a more conventional catalyst combination in the form of palladium and gold for the same reaction. They found that controlled deposition of Pd on Au nanoparticles could tune the Pd dispersion and produce higher catalytic activity for the electrooxidation of formic acid. They have also characterised in detail the interaction of Pd with the reactive species.
To find out more, read about the work in RSC Advances for free until the 14th March 2013:
Pt–Pb hollow sphere networks: self-sacrifice-templating method and enhanced activity for formic acid electrooxidation, Xiao Zhao, Jianbing Zhu, Weiwei Cai, Meiling Xiao, Liang Liang, Changpeng Liu and Wei Xing, RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 1763–1767
Catalytic Pd-on-Au nanostructures with improved Pd activity for formic acid electro-oxidation, Yuan-Yuan Feng, Gui-Rong Zhang and Bo-Qing Xu, RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 1748–1752
By Sara Coles
Ice recrystallization inhibitors (IRIs) are very important when it comes to preventing cell damage which can occur during cryopreservation. This is particularly crucial for the cryopreservation of progenitor cells (such as certain types of stem cells) where the clinical outcome in regenerative therapies to treat acute injuries, is directly linked to an increased supply and quality of cells. Therefore there has been considerable interest in designing effective IRIs.
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The importance of hydrophobic moieties in ice recrystallization inhibitors, Anna K. Balcerzak, Michela Febbraro and Robert N. Ben, RSC Adv., 2013, DOI: 10.1039/C3RA23220D
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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.
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.
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
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.
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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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Graphene is one of the most exciting and promising materials to have emerged into the laboratory in recent years. Among its many possibilities it can be used as a support for various catalysts, such as the highly-dispersed ultrafine platinum nanoparticles synthesised by Baoqiang Sheng and colleagues at Key Laboratory of Organic Synthesis of Jiangsu Province in China.
The group used their graphene-supported platinum catalysts to reduce various unsaturated compounds, including not only C-C double and triple bonds but also nitroarenes. These could be selectively converted to their corresponding functionalized anilines – important intermediates in the preparation of polymers, urethanes, dyes, pharmaceuticals, and other industrially-important chemical products.
They claim excellent yields (over 99% in most cases) under mild conditions, with the ability to accelerate the reaction rate by increasing the pressure to 4 atm, giving complete hydrogenation products in ten minutes.
The paper provides details of the preparation and characterisation of the supported catalysts, and lists the experimental procedures together with results of the reductions that were carried out.
This article is currently free to access through the RSC Advances website:
Highly-dispersed ultrafine Pt nanoparticles on graphene as effective hydrogenation catalysts, Baoqiang Sheng, Lei Hu, Tingting Yu, Xueqin Cao and Hongwei Gu, RSC Adv., 2012, 2, 5520–5523
Being green is very important these days: and yet it’s important not to compromise on the activity and selectivity of our catalytic reactions. A quick look through recent issues of RSC Advances shows that chemists are not sleeping on their laurels when it comes to recyclable and reusable catalysts which are nevertheless active for a whole range of reactions.
Just to take some examples: Subhankar Santra and colleagues from India have developed a simple process for decorating palladium nanoparticles onto single-walled carbon nanotubes – those versatile carbon-based supports – and tested the resulting catalyst in a copper-free acyl Sonogashira reaction. Most importantly they were able to recycle the catalyst up to seven times; it is to be hoped that further optimisation would increase this number still further.
Meanwhile also from India, Mithu Saha et al. have been working on a ligand-free palladium(0) nanoparticle-catalysed reaction that works in water. They tested the catalyst for the synthesis of bis(heterocyclyl)methane derivatives. They report good yields and reused the catalyst four times.
A novel approach to catalyst separation was taken by Zhijie Wu et al. in China, who made a magnetic core–shell nanocomposite, Fe3O4@SiO2@Pd-Au, for liquid-phase hydrodechlorination of 4-chlorophenol – an important reaction for the disposal of chlorophenol waste. They optimised the catalyst preparation and composition and, after magnetic separation, could reuse the catalyst at least eight times.
All these articles are available through the RSC Advances website, and are free to access so now is a good time to read about this fascinating research.
Anchored palladium nanoparticles onto single walled carbon nanotubes: Efficient recyclable catalyst for N-containing heterocycles, Subhankar Santra , Priyadarshi Ranjan , Parthasarathi Bera , Prasenjit Ghosh and Swadhin K. Mandal, RSC Adv., 2012, 2, 7523-7533
Pd(0) NPs: a novel and reusable catalyst for the synthesis of bis(heterocyclyl)methanes in water, Mithu Saha , Amarta Kumar Pal and Shibaji Nandi, RSC Adv., 2012, 2, 6397-6400
Fe3O4@SiO2@Pd-Au: a highly efficient and magnetically separable catalyst for liquid-phase hydrodechlorination of 4-chlorophenol, Zhijie Wu , Chongxia Sun , Yan Chai and Minghui Zhang, RSC Adv., 2011, 1, 1179-1182
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By Sara Coles
