Highly efficient and metal-free synthesis of tri- and tetrasubstituted imidazole catalyzed by 3-picolinic acid

3-Picolinic acid is an efficient organo-catalyst for a one-pot three-component synthesis of 2,4,5-triaryl substituted imidazole. Moreover, the utility of this catalyst has been extended to the four-component synthesis of 1,2,4,5-tetra-substituted imidazole. The pivotal advantages of this process are easy purification, cost-effectiveness, and high yielding, above all environmentally benign protocol.     

Base-promoted N-alkylation using formamides as the N-sources in neat water

An efficient catalyst-free, alternative method for the C–N bond formation reaction of alkyl electrophiles using formamides as the N-sources was achieved under mild conditions. The reaction possesses the advantages of a broad range of substrates scope and wide functional group tolerance. It should also be noted that this process was performed using the environmentally benign water as the sole solvent, and high yield can also be achieved in ten-gram scale.     

A cost‐effective curvature calculation approach for interfacial flows on unstructured meshes

We present a simple and cost‐effective curvature calculation approach for simulations of interfacial flows on structured and unstructured grids. The interface is defined using volume fractions, and the interface curvature is obtained as a function of the gradients of volume fractions. The gradient computation is based on a recently proposed gradient recovery method that mimicks the least squares approach without the need to solve a system of equations and is quite easy to implement on arbitrary polygonal meshes. The resulting interface curvature is used in a continuum surface force formulation within the framework of a well‐balanced finite‐volume algorithm to simulate multiphase flows dominated by surface tension. We show that the proposed curvature calculation is at least as accurate as some of the existing approaches on unstructured meshes while being straightforward to implement on any mesh topology. Numerical investigations also show that spurious currents in stationary problems that are dependent on the curvature calculation methodology are also acceptably low using the proposed approach. Studies on capillary waves and rising bubbles in viscous flows lend credence to the ability of the proposed method as an inexpensive, robust, and reasonably accurate approach for curvature calculation and numerical simulation of multiphase flows.     

The concept of dual roles design in clean organic preparation

Herein we summarized some clean preparation examples to emphasize the concept of dual roles design (or named as “two birds one stone strategy”) in green and sustainable chemistry. In those examples, the reactants and/or solvent play dual roles rendering a cleaner organic preparation process. Consequently, both the chemical waste and manufacturing cost could be reduced.     

Sustainable alternative in environmental monitoring using carbon nanoparticles as optical probes

Environmental monitoring is getting more important nowadays due to the greater stress faced by the natural environment in the era of urbanisation and industrialisation. To accomplish the task, rapid and reliable analytical probes are essentially needed to perform the monitoring at real time basis with high sensitivity and accuracy. In view of this, analytical probes developed using carbon nanoparticles are one of the latest alternatives that are proven with capability to detect various analytes of the environment. Carbon nanoparticles portray good fluorescence property that enables the integration onto optical sensing transducers. Further engineering via surface functionalization can be performed in the interest to improve the selectivity and sensitivity of the probes. There are several advantages of using carbon nanoparticles and the most significant benefit is the sustainability prospect as compared to other groups of fluorophores. Carbon nanoparticles can be synthesised with greener approach via simple pyrolysis or hydrolysis processes that involve minimum use of toxic or harmful starting precursors, besides able to tap on using renewable resources such as carbon rich agricultural wastes. The synthesis is often performed under mild condition and produces less or no side chemical products. Carbon nanoparticles by nature show low toxicity effect to the environment. This review focuses specifically of the sustainable significances, advantages and achievements in adopting carbon nanoparticles as an alternative for environmental monitoring.     

Dabco-Catalysed Reactions of Salicylaldehydes with Acrylate Derivatives

Treatment of salicylaldehydes with acrylate derivatives in the presence of 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO) has been shown to afford both coumarin and chromene derivatives, and factors influencing the product distributions have been investigated.     

Solvent-Free Condensation of Methyl Pyridinium and Quinolinium Salts with Aldehydes Catalyzed by DBU

Methylpyridinium and methylquinolinium salts were condensed under solvent-free conditions with aromatic aldehydes in the presence of 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.]undec-7-ene (DBU) as catalyst, by grinding at room temperature. The products are dyes or useful intermediates. The DBU can be easily recycled and reused.     

The effect of high power airborne ultrasound and microwaves on convective drying effectiveness and quality of green pepper

The effectiveness of hybrid drying based on convective drying with application of ultrasound and microwave enhancement is the main subject of the studies. The drying kinetics, energy consumption as well as the quality aspect of green pepper is analysed. It was shown that hybrid drying methods shorten significantly the drying time, reduce the energy consumption and affect positively the quality factors. Each of the analysed aspects depend on combination of the convective-ultrasound-microwave drying programs. Besides, based on the drying model elaborated earlier by one of the authors, the effects of ultrasound on convective drying assessed by such phenomena as “heating effect”, “vibration effect” and “synergistic effect” are presented.     

Polyethylene Glycol‐(N‐Methylimidazolium) Hydroxide‐Grafted γ‐Fe2O3@HAp: A Novel Nanomagnetic Recyclable Basic Phase‐Transfer Catalyst for the Synthesis of Tetrahydrobenzopyran Derivatives in Aqueous Media

Polyethylene glycol‐(N‐methylimidazolium) hydroxide‐grafted hydroxyapatite encapsulated γ‐Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles, γ‐Fe₂O₃@HAp@PEG(mim)OH, were prepared and characterized by FTIR, SEM, TEM, TGA, and EDAX. This nanocomposite was applied as a novel, green, nanomagnetic, and recyclable basic phase‐transfer catalyst for the synthesis of tetrahydrobenzopyrans in high yields via the three‐component reaction of aromatic aldehydes, malononitrile, and dimedone or 1,3‐cyclohexanedione in aqueous media at ambient temperature.     

The effect of local electronic interaction on the optical properties of boron–nitride nanotubes

We investigate the behavior of optical absorption of boron–nitride nanotubes (6,0) in the context of Hubbard model at the paramagnetic sector. GW approximation has been implemented in order to make self-energy matrix of electronic system. Afterwards, the real and imaginary parts of transverse dielectric functions have been obtained using linear response theory. The results show that the frequency gap in the optical absorption decreases with Coulomb repulsion strength. Moreover the results show that the local Coulomb interaction leads to the appearance of the excitonic effects in the optical spectrum. Finally the effects of electronic concentration on the frequency behavior of imaginary part of dielectric function have been investigated.