RSC Advances Blog

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.

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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

Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) are highly promising as energy-efficient lighting and in flat panel displays. Much work is being done around the world and a recently accepted article in RSC Advances, by Yuezhong Meng, Shuanjin Wang and colleagues in China, reports on the preparation of a yellow-emitting iridium complex [Ir(DMP)₃] for use in OLEDs.

An OLED doped with 2 wt% of the complex produced yellow emission at 576 nm with a maximum quantum efficiency of 8.7% at 5.93 mA/cm², and CIE coordinates of (0.49, 0.50). Yellow OLEDs are of key importance for the production of white OLEDs (or WOLEDs) for solid-state lighting applications. Details of the synthesis, characterisation, OLED fabrication and performance are given.

This article is free to access:

Structure and Properties of Highly Luminescent Yellow Emitting Material for OLED and Its Application, Shakil Mulani, Min Xiao, Shuanjin Wang, Yawen Chen, Junbiao Peng and Yuezhong Meng, RSC Adv., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA21951D

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By Sara Coles

Scientists from China have identified and characterised the elusive gold(I) hydrates that result from the common gold(I) pre-catalyst Ph₃PAuOTf.

Gold(I) complexes have been the subject of a great deal of attention in recent year due to their application in a broad range of chemical reactions and their excellent catalytic activity.  Their advantages over some other metal catalysts includes their insensitivity to moisture, therefore not requiring a completely ‘dry’ reaction environment and instead can even be used in reactions with water as the solvent. 

Amongst some of the ambiguous aspects of the catalytic species actually involved in these transformations, the exact role of water, and whether it reacts with the gold complexes, is uncertain.  This is important in order to gauge the impact water has on the catalytic activity and the turnover frequency.  In this work, Biao Yu and Yu Tang from the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, China, identified two gold(I) hydrates from the Ph₃PAuOTf pre-catalyst – [Ph₃PAu(OH₂)]⁺TfO⁻and [(Ph₃PAu)₂(OH)₂]²⁺(TfO⁻)₂, resulting in the disclosure of the equilibria between gold oxo species in wet solutions.  The results presented here help to explain further the stability of some gold complexes in water and the instability of others.

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Identification of (phosphine)gold(I) hydrates and their equilibria in wet solutions, Yu Tang and Biao Yu, RSC Adv., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA22282E

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This review article by Jean-Jacques Vasseur, François Morvan, Yann Chevolot and colleagues from France looks at the design and applications of DNA glycoclusters and DNA-based carbohydrate microarrays, combining the automated chemistry of DNA and “click” chemistry. 

The authors illustrate that DNA chemistry (phosphoramidite as well as H-phosphonate) can be used to synthesis glycomimetics via a very efficient copper(I) catalyzed azide alkyne cycloaddition (“click” chemistry). This gives quick access to a range of glycomimetics with different topologies, such as linear and crown-like.  Due to the DNA tag present, the glycomimetics can easily be immobilized on microarrays to analyse their interactions and binding-properties with lectins.  The authors demonstrate that DNA glycoarrays relying on DNA directed immobilization presents several advantages over conventional immobilization techniques.

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DNA glycoclusters and DNA-based carbohydrate microarrays: From design to applications, François Morvan, Sébastien Vidal, Eliane Souteyrand, Yann Chevolot and Jean-Jacques Vasseur, RSC Adv., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA21550K

This article is part of a web-themed issue accross RSC Advances, ChemComm and Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry ‘Nucleic acids: new life, new materials‘ dedicated to the memory of Professor Har Gobind Khorana (1922 – 2011), acknowledging his legacy to the nucleic acids community.  Read the collection so far here.

A straightforward route to synthesize pyrrolylBODIPY dyes, which can be used for fluorescent imaging, from acid chloride and excess pyrrole has been developed by scientists in China.

Pyrrolyldipyrromethenes contain the same core structure as the natural red pigment prodigiosin, and have received a lot of interest due to their broad range of biological activities.  When pyrrolyldipyrromethene is complexed with boron, the result is long wavelength absorbing and emitting fluorescent dyes.  In the synthesis of these dyes, the key step is the synthesis of the 2,2′-bipyrrole unit which often involves multiple steps and the use of expensive catalysts.

In this work, Erhong Hao, Lijuan Jiao and colleagues from Anhui Normal University, China, report that by reacting acyl chloride and excess pyrrole in dichloromethane under an oxygen atmosphere, to give the pyrrolylBODIPY dyes after about 10 hours. The application of these dyes to the fluorescent imaging of living-cells was then tested and the results suggested that the dyes were non-toxic and could easily be taken up by the cells. 

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One-pot efficient synthesis of pyrrolylBODIPY dyes from pyrrole and acyl chloride, Min Zhang, Erhong Hao, Yajun Xu, Shengzhou Zhang, Hongnian Zhu, Qi Wang, Changjiang Yu and Lijuan Jiao, RSC Adv., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA22203E

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Synthesis and spectroscopic properties of bodipy dimers with effective solid-state emission, Lizhi Gai, Hua Lu, Bin Zou, Guoqiao Lai, Zhen Shen and Zhifang Li, RSC Adv., 2012, 2, 8840-8846

Thienyl-substituted BODIPYs with strong visible light-absorption and long-lived triplet excited states as organic triplet sensitizers for triplet–triplet annihilation upconversion, Yinghui Chen, Jianzhang Zhao, Lijuan Xie, Huimin Guo and Qiuting Li, RSC Adv., 2012, 2, 3942-3953

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