Accessing the spatiotemporal heterogeneities of single nanocatalysts by optically imaging gas nanobubbles

Catalysts that catalyze the generation of products in the gas phase, especially those involved in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), hold great promise for ecofriendly and sustainable energy development. In general, gas chromatography is widely used to measure catalytic activity. Unfortunately, it gives an averaged output that washes out the heterogeneities among individuals. To assess the unique catalytic properties at the single nanoparticle level, various methods based on single particle catalysis have been proposed. Over the past fifteen years, tremendous breakthroughs have been achieved, which uncovered hidden spatial and temporal heterogeneities. Although powerful, effectively quantifying the activities of single HER nanocatalysts remains challenging because of the fast diffusion of hydrogen (H₂). In 2017, a novel approach based on a nanobubble indicator was proposed to correlate the kinetics of gas bubble evolution with the catalytic activities of individual nanoentities during the HER process. Since then, a plethora of optical microscopy techniques have been utilized to monitor dynamically evolved nanobubbles and to measure the catalytic activities of single HER catalysts. In this minireview, we summarized state-of-the-art optical microscopy for in operando imaging of dynamic nanobubbles involved in gas-generating reactions while highlighting some important discoveries, including the blinking photocatalytic activity and heterogeneous distribution of active sites. Finally, challenges and future perspectives in this promising field were identified.     

Room Temperature Ionic Liquids in Asymmetric Hetero-Ene Type Reactions: Improving Organocatalyst Performance at Lower Temperatures

Room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) have been widely used as (co)solvents in several catalytic processes modifying, in most of the cases, the catalyst activity and/or the selectivity for the studied reactions. However, there are just a few examples of their use in hydrogen bonding organocatalysis. In this paper, we show the positive effect of a set of imidazole-based ionic liquids ([bmim]BF₄ and [hmim]PF₆) in the enantioselective addition of formaldehyde tert-butylhydrazone to prochiral α-keto esters catalyzed by a sugar-based chiral thiourea. Reactions performed in the presence of low percentages of RTILs led to an increase of the catalyst activity, thereby making possible to work at lower temperatures. Thus, the chiral tert-butyl azomethyl tertiary alcohols could be obtained with moderate to good conversions and higher enantioselectivities for most of the studied substrates when using up to 30 vol% of [hmim]PF₆ as a cosolvent in processes performed in toluene.     

负载型廉价金属催化剂在低温催化氧化甲醛中的应用

甲醛是室内常见的挥发性有机污染物之一,长期接触会严重危害人体健康。负载型廉价金属催化剂在甲醛去除和实际应用方面表现出优异性能,引起研究人员的广泛关注。本文阐述了低温条件下负载型廉价金属催化剂在甲醛热催化氧化、光催化氧化和等离子协同催化氧化方面的研究进展,介绍了甲醛低温催化的影响因素,并讨论了反应机理。反应条件、载体类型和制备方式是影响甲醛低温催化活性的重要因素。虽然负载型廉价金属催化剂在甲醛光催化氧化和热催化氧化方面均表现出良好性能,但仍须进一步探究提升其在可见光和室温下的催化活性。对于甲醛等离子协同催化氧化,降低反应过程所产生的副产物和能耗仍是研究重点。此外,本文还对负载型廉价金属催化剂在甲醛催化应用中的发展方向进行了展望。     

MOFs/水凝胶复合材料的制备及其应用研究

金属有机框架(MOFs)具有大量的孔隙结构和活性位点,在气体吸附、催化、医疗等领域均发挥了巨大的作用。MOFs是晶体粉末,具有脆性较大、在水中易分解和不易回收等缺点,从而限制了其应用。通过MOFs与柔性高分子的复合,特别是与水凝胶的复合,极大地改善了复合材料的柔顺性、可回收和可加工性等特性,进一步拓宽了MOFs的应用领域。本文详细阐述了基于水凝胶MOFs原位生成法、MOFs /水凝胶同时生成法和水凝胶包裹MOFs法等三种不同方法制备MOFs/水凝胶复合材料的研究进展,并对上述三种制备方法的特点及其产物特征进行了总结,进一步归纳了复合材料在生物医药、催化、废水处理和气体吸附等领域的应用。最后,对MOFs/水凝胶复合材料制备方法的改进和复合材料应用前景进行了深入讨论和展望。     

Enantioselective Diels–Alder reactions with left-handed G-quadruplex DNA-based catalysts

Since the discovery of left-handed G-quadruplex (L-G4) structure formed by natural DNA, there has been a growing interest in its potential functions. This study utilised it to catalyse enantioselective Diels-Alder reactions, considering its different optical rotation compared to an ordinary G4. It was determined that when L-G4 was used with a combination of copper(II) ions, there was a good enantioselectivity (?52% ee) without further addition of ligands. When further consideration was given by adding G4 ligands, G4 was further stabilised, even obtaining a better enantioselectivity (up to ?80% ee). Moreover, when using ligands that have regulatory effects on G4, the ee value can be adjusted. In this work, a minimal left-handed G4 was reported. A follow-up study was also conducted, which recovers that the minimal left-handed G4 remains its catalytic effect and enantioselectivity, but is not so effective as the former case. This indicates that a complete G4 structure is relatively conducive to chiral catalysis.     

CBS还原合成手性1-苯乙醇实验设计*

将学科热点之一催化不对称合成策略引入实验教学中,通过CBS还原制备手性醇。实验以苯乙酮为原料,还原得到粗产物手性1-苯乙醇,经制备色谱仪分离提纯,气相色谱和自动旋光仪表征产物的光学性质。实验为综合型有机化学实验,通过此实验,学生在掌握手性醇合成原理与方法的同时,进一步学习手套箱、气相色谱、制备色谱仪、自动旋光仪等新技术,以提升学生综合科研素质。     

二氧化碳催化加氢及其研究进展*

综述了二氧化碳热催化加氢的现状和研究进展,为进一步开展二氧化碳催化加氢的研究提供参考     

Pourbaix diagrams in weakly coupled systems: a case study involving acridinol and phenanthridinol pseudobases

The thermodynamics of proton‐coupled electron transfer (PCET) in weakly coupled organic pseudobases was investigated using 2,7‐dimethyl‐9‐hydroxy‐9‐phenyl‐10‐tolyl‐9,10‐dihydroacridine (AcrOH) and 6‐phenylphenanthridinol (PheOH) as model compounds. Pourbaix diagrams for two model compounds were constructed using the oxidation potentials and the pK_a values obtained, respectively, from cyclic voltammetry and photometric titrations. Our comparative study reveals the importance of having the redox active –N center closer to –OH functionality on the thermodynamics of PCET process: PheOH exhibits a wider range of pH values (pH = 2.8 to 13.3) in which both the alcohol and the corresponding alkoxy radical are expected to coexist in solution. This result indicates that a concerted mechanism is more likely to be discovered in pseudobases analogous to PheOH. The thermochemical data also indicate that the concerted PCET mechanism cannot be achieved if water is used as the proton acceptor: assuming the pK_a of hydronium ions as ?1.7, the PCET involving PheOH or AcrOH as proton/electron donors and water as the proton acceptor is expected to follow the stepwise ET/PT mechanism. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Kinetics and mechanism of uncatalysed and ruthenium(III) catalysed oxidation of allyl alcohol by diperiodatoargentate(III) in aqueous alkaline medium

The oxidation of allyl alcohol by diperiodatoargentate(III) (DPA) is carried out both in the absence and presence of ruthenium(III) catalyst in alkaline medium at 298 K and a constant ionic strength of 1.1 mol dm^?3 was studied spectrophotometrically. The oxidation products in both the cases were acrolein and Ag(I), identified by spectral studies. The stoichiometry is same in both the cases, that is, [AA]/[DPA] = 1:1. The reaction shows first order in [DPA] and has less than unit order dependence each in both [AA] and [Alkali] and retarding effect of [IO] in both the catalysed and uncatalysed cases. The order in [Ru(III)] is unity. The active species of DPA is understood to be as monoperiodatoargentate(III) (MPA) in both the cases. The uncatalysed reaction in alkaline medium has been shown to proceed via a MPA–allyl alcohol complex, which decomposes in a rate determining step to give the products. In catalysed reaction, it has been shown to proceed via a Ru(III)‐allyl alcohol complex, which further reacts with one molecule of MPA in a rate determining step to give the products. The reaction constants involved in the different steps of the mechanisms were calculated for both reactions. The catalytic constant (K_c) was also calculated for catalysed reaction at different temperatures. The activation parameters with respect to slow step of the mechanisms were computed and discussed for both the cases. The thermodynamic quantities were also determined for both reactions. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An efficient and practical synthesis of methylene dioximes by combination of ultrasound and phase transfer catalyst

The reaction of oximes with dichloromethane was carried out in 71–98% yields at 20–30 °C for 2–3.5 h in the presence of sodium hydroxide by combination of benzyldimethyltetradecylammonium chloride and ultrasonication. The main advantage of the present procedure is that the reaction time is much shorter than classical methods.