Solvay (China)

INGENIERIE+MPE

Pickering emulsions are surfactant-free dispersions of two immiscible fluids that are kinetically stabilized by colloidal particles. For ecological reasons, these systems have undergone a resurgence of interest to mitigate the use of synthetic surfactants and solvents. Moreover, the use of colloidal particles as stabilizers provides emulsions with original properties compared to surfactant-stabilized emulsions, microemulsions, and micellar systems. Despite these specific advantages, the application of Pickering emulsions to catalysis has been rarely explored. This Minireview describes very recent examples of hybrid and composite amphiphilic materials for the design of interfacial catalysts in Pickering emulsions with special emphasis on their assets and challenges for industrially relevant biphasic reactions in fine chemistry, biofuel upgrading, and depollution.

Chelate me if you can: Over the last decade, strategies for the functionalization of both C(sp2)-H and C(sp3)-H bonds have witnessed an increasing use of a simple, yet powerful directing group, 8-aminoquinoline (in blue). This auxiliary is very efficient in a wide range of metal-mediated reactions, and can be readily removed to afford the desired carboxylic acids or corresponding derivatives.

Stabilization of oil/oil Pickering emulsions using robust and recyclable catalytic amphiphilic silica nanoparticles bearing alkyl and propylsulfonic acid groups allows fast and efficient solvent-free acetalization of immiscible long-chain fatty aldehydes with ethylene glycol.

1,3-Butadiene is traditionally produced as a byproduct of ethylene production from steam crackers. What is unusual is that the alternative production route for this important commodity chemical via ethanol was developed a long time ago, before World War II. Currently, there is a renewed interest in the production of butadiene from biomass due to the general trend to replace oil in the chemical industry. This review describes the recent progress in the production of butadiene from ethanol (ETB) by one or two-step process through intermediate production of acetaldehyde with an emphasis on the new catalytic systems. The different catalysts for butadiene production are compared in terms of structure-catalytic performance relationship, highlighting the key issues and requirements for future developments. The main difficulty in this process is that basic, acid and redox properties have to be combined in one single catalyst for the reactions of condensation, dehydration and hydrogenation. Magnesium and zirconium-based catalysts in the form of oxides or recently proposed silicates and zeolites promoted by metals are prevailing for butadiene synthesis with the highest selectivity of 70% at high ethanol conversion. The major challenge for further application of the process is to increase the butadiene productivity and to enhance the catalyst lifetime by suppression of coke deposition with preservation of active sites.

The cleavage of C-O linkages in aryl ethers in biomass-derived lignin compounds without hydrogenation of the aromatic rings is a major challenge for the production of sustainable mono-aromatics. Conventional strategies over the heterogeneous metal catalysts require the addition of homogeneous base additives causing environmental problems. Herein, we propose a heterogeneous Ru/C catalyst modified by Br atoms for the selective direct cleavage of C-O bonds in diphenyl ether without hydrogenation of aromatic rings reaching the yield of benzene and phenol as high as 90.3 % and increased selectivity to mono-aromatics (97.3 vs. 46.2 % for initial Ru) during depolymerization of lignin. Characterization of the catalyst indicates selective poisoning by Br of terrace sites over Ru nanoparticles, which are active in the hydrogenation of aromatic rings, while the defect sites on the edges and corners remain available and provide higher intrinsic activity in the C-O bond cleavage.

Supported metal catalysts have found broad applications in heterogeneous catalysis. In the conventional bifunctional catalyst, the active metal sites are associated with the metal nanoparticles, while the acid sites are usually localized over the oxide support. Herein, we report a novel type of supported metal bifunctional catalyst, which combined the advantages of the promotion and bifunctionality. The catalyst was designed by the pretreatment of supported palladium catalysts with bromobenzene. The promotion with bromine creates Brønsted acid sites, which are localized directly on the surface of metal nanoparticles. An intimacy between metal and acid functions in this bifunctional catalyst generates unique catalytic properties in hydrodeoxygenation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural to dimethylfuran, occurring with the yield up to 96% at ambient temperature under 5 bar of H2. The catalyst exhibits stable catalytic performance.

Since CO2 is a readily available feedstock throughout the world, the utilization of CO2 as a C1 building block for the synthesis of valuable chemicals is a highly attractive concept. However, due to its very nature of energy depleted "carbon sink", CO2 has a very low reactivity. Electrocatalysis offers the most attractive means to activate CO2 through reduction: the electron is the "cleanest" reducing agent whose energy can be tuned to the thermodynamic optimum. Under protic conditions, the reduction of CO2 over many metal electrodes results in formic acid. Thus, to open the road to its utilization as a C1 building block, the presence of water should be avoided to allow a more diverse chemistry, in particular for C-C bond formation with alkenes. Under those conditions, the intrinsic reactivity of CO2 can generate carbonates and oxalates by C-O and C-C bond formation, respectively. On Ni(111), almost exclusively carbonates and carbon monoxide are evidenced experimentally. Despite recent progress in modelling electrocatalytic reactions, determining the actual mechanism and selectivities between competing reaction pathways is still not straight forward. As a simple but important example of the intrinsic reactivity of CO2 under aprotic conditions, we highlight the shortcomings of the popular linear free energy relationship for electrode potentials (LFER-EP). Going beyond this zeroth order approximation by charging the surface and thus explicitly including the electrochemical potential into the electronic structure computations allows us to access more detailed insights, shedding light on coverage effects and on the influence of counterions.

Can I borrow hydrogen? Direct amination of biomass-derived platform alcohols can be efficiently performed through the borrowing hydrogen mechanism, offering high activity and selectivity at low-to-moderate temperatures. Unlike nucleophilic substitution, the catalyst behaves as a tandem system involving the temporary removal of H2 from the reaction medium.

We report the synthesis of biomass-derived functionalized aromatic chemicals from furfural, a building block nowadays available in large scale from low-cost biomass. The scientific strategy relies on a Diels-Alder/aromatization sequence. By controlling the rate of each step, it was possible to produce exclusively the meta aromatic isomer. In particular, through this route, we describe the synthesis of renewably sourced meta-xylylenediamine (MXD). Transposition of this work to other furfural-derived chemicals is also discussed and reveals that functionalized biomass-derived aromatics (benzaldehyde, benzylamine, etc.) can be potentially produced, according to this route.

Pickering emulsions, foams, bubbles, and marbles are dispersions of two immiscible liquids or of a liquid and a gas stabilized by surface-active colloidal particles. These systems can be used for engineering liquid-liquid-solid and gas-liquid-solid microreactors for multiphase reactions. They constitute original platforms for reengineering multiphase reactors towards a higher degree of sustainability. This Review provides a systematic overview on the recent progress of liquid-liquid and gas-liquid dispersions stabilized by solid particles as microreactors for engineering eco-efficient reactions, with emphasis on biobased reagents. Physicochemical driving parameters, challenges, and strategies to (de)stabilize dispersions for product recovery/catalyst recycling are discussed. Advanced concepts such as cascade and continuous flow reactions, compartmentalization of incompatible reagents, and multiscale computational methods for accelerating particle discovery are also addressed.

Selective synthesis of ethers from biomass-derived carbonyl compounds is an important academic and industrial challenge. The existing processes based on strong acid or metallic catalysts cannot provide high selectivity to ethers due to the occurrence of side reactions. Hereby we propose a Pd-I bifunctional heterogeneous catalyst for the selective reductive etherification of aldehydes with alcohols. Extensive catalyst characterizations uncovered the presence of iodine species on the surface of Pd nanoparticles. Heterolytic dissociation of hydrogen on the I-Pd surface sites leads to the “in situ” generation of a Brønsted acid, which promotes the reaction toward the corresponding ethers with extremely high selectivity under very mild reaction conditions.

The reaction rates and selectivity of many metal-catalyzed reactions depend on the size of the metal particles in the nanoscale range. Primary amines are important platform molecules in the chemical industry. In this work, the catalytic performance of nonsupported Ru nanoparticles with sizes from 2 to 9 nm was investigated in direct amination of octanol and other alcohols into primary amines in the presence of ammonia. The 90% selectivity to octylamine was obtained over small Ru nanoparticles (d = 2 nm) even at 92% conversion, whereas for larger Ru nonsupported and supported nanoparticles, the octylamine selectivity dropped as the octanol conversion approached 70–80%. The primary reaction of alcohol amination into octylamine was found to be nearly a structure-insensitive reaction. The selectivity to primary amine drops over large Ru particles at higher conversions, because of the secondary highly structure-sensitive reaction of amine self-coupling. Over small metal nanoparticles, amine self-coupling is hindered, because of suppression of secondary imine hydrogenation. Similar structure sensitivities of the reactions involved in alcohol amination were observed for different substrates.

A series of biobased routes are critically scrutinized for the production of hexamethylenediamine (HMDA) using 5-hydroxymethylene furfural (HMF) as intermediate building block.

We disclose in this study a Ni6AlOx catalyst prepared by coprecipitation for the reductive amination of biomass-derived aldehydes and ketones in aqueous ammonia under mild reaction conditions. The catalyst exhibited 99% yield toward 5-aminomethyl-2-furylmethanol in the reaction of 5-hydroxymethyl furfural with ammonia at 100 °C for 6 h under 1 bar H2. The catalyst was further extended to the reductive amination of a library of aromatic and aliphatic aldehydes and ketones with a yield in the range 81–90% at optimized reaction conditions. Besides, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural could react with a library of primary and secondary amines with yields in the range 76–88%. The catalyst could be easily recycled and reused without apparent loss of activity in four consecutive runs.

Various types of Ti-containing zeolites, i.e., Ti-MWW, TS-1, Ti-MOR, and Ti-BEA, have been evaluated as candidates for the liquid-phase oxidation of cyclohexane using t-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP, 7–8 wt %) as model oxidant. Ti-MWW zeolite displayed the highest activity for cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone (KA oil) with an overall selectivity higher than 90% at 80 °C, making this catalyst a candidate of choice for industrial KA oil production by deperoxidation of cyclohexyl hydroperoxide. The effect of the reaction temperature, reaction time, catalyst amount, and catalyst stability on Ti-MWW was surveyed in detail. The Ti-MWW catalyst showed a stable performance and could be recycled at least four times without detectable Ti leaching and loss of structural stability. The active sites for cyclohexane oxidation appeared to be located near external 12-ring cups in the Ti-MWW framework as suggested by a series of position-selective poisoning tests with tripropyl- and triphenylamine, impelling cyclohexane diffusion within the internal 10-ring channels. EPR experiments supported by DFT calculations suggested the coexistence of both Ti(IV)-OO• (peroxyl) and Ti(IV)-O• (oxyl) species generated through bimolecular pathways, implying simultaneously (SiO)3Ti(OOtBu) species and tBuOOH. The catalytic activity was strongly inhibited in the presence of alkenes, leading to the preferential formation of the epoxidation product with no detectable formation of radicals. Notably, this is the first time that oxyl species have been detected particularly with the help of DFT calculations. Predicted differences of g tensors between peroxyl and oxyl species at various hydration levels in the presence of cyclohexane were consistent with the EPR spectra.

Chelatbildendes Auxiliar: In den letzten Jahren wurde ein breites Spektrum metallvermittelter Reaktionen entwickelt, in denen die 8-Aminochinolingruppe (blau dargestellt) als dirigierende Gruppe zur Funktionalisierung von C-H- und C-H-Bindungen verwendet wurde. Dieses Auxiliar kann leicht in das Substrat eingeführt und aus dem Produkt wieder entfernt werden, und die Zahl an verschiedenartigen Umwandlungen ist beeindruckend.

2,5-furandialdehyde (DFF) was synthesized by electrogenerative oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) over a PtRu catalyst with 89 % selectivity at 50 °C after 17 h. This approach opens an avenue for a selective, energy-efficient and green oxidation of biomass-derived platform alcohols to added-value chemicals.

The Front Cover shows how combining theoretical and experimental investigations allows predicting the feasibility and the selectivity of Diels–Alder reactions involving furfural as a bio-based diene, opening a straightforward route to renewable aromatics. More information can be found in the Full Paper by I. van Scodeller et al.

Flexoelectricity is a gradient electromechanical coupling effect that exists in all dielectrics and is important for the understanding of a variety of gradient-induced physical phenomena and the design of new electromechanical devices. At present, the flexoelectric effect in polymer materials has not been well studied. In this work, thick rectangular poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)-based polymer samples were fabricated and the flexoelectric coefficient was measured. Our results show that the flexoelectric coefficient of the PVDF, which is on the order of several nC/m, is more than twice higher than that of P(VDF-CTFE) and P(VDF-HFP) polymers. All these materials exhibited a non-polar α phase, but the copolymers showed much smaller crystallinity values than the PVDF homopolymer. The difference in the flexoelectric response in these polymers is believed to be related to the crystallinity of the polymers.