Reduction reactions in green solvents: water, supercritical carbon dioxide, and ionic liquids

Mild and Selective Hydrogenation of Unsaturated Compounds Using Mn/Water as a Hydrogen Gas Source

A mild and highly selective reduction of alkenes and alkynes using Mn/water is described. The highly controlled generation of H2 allows the selective reduction of these compounds in the presence of labile functional groups under mild and environmentally acceptable conditions.

Deep Eutectic Solvent-Mediated Electrocatalysts for Water Splitting

As green, safe, and cheap solvents, deep eutectic solvents (DESs) provide tremendous opportunities to open up attractive perspectives for electrocatalysis. In this review, the achievement of DESs in the preparation of catalysts for electrolytic water splitting is described in detail according to their roles combined with our own work. DESs are generally employed as green media, templates, and electrolytes. A large number of hydrogen bonds in DESs result in supramolecular structures which have the ability to shape the morphologies of nanomaterials and then tune their performance. DESs can also serve as reactive reagents of metal electrocatalysts through directly participating in synthesis. Compared with conventional heteroatom sources, they have the advantages of high safety and designability. The "all-in-one" transformation strategy is expected to realize 100% atomic transformation of reactants. The aim of this review is to offer readers a deeper understanding on preparing DES-mediated electrocatalysts with higher performance for water splitting.

Multicomponent Reaction: Palladium-Catalyzed Carbonylation of Aryl Halides and Alkyl Halides to Aromatic Esters

A convenient four-component reaction has been developed that allows for the direct transformation of aryl iodides with alkyl halides into the corresponding aromatic esters and diesters via palladium-catalyzed carbonylation with water as solvent. Various esters and diesters were isolated in moderate to good yields with broad functional group tolerance.

Ionic deep eutectic solvents for the extraction and separation of natural products

Room ionic liquids (ILs) used as green solvents have received considerable attention and wide application in different research and industrial fields, such as chemistry, biology, catalysis, energy, and even environmental sciences. Recently, a new class of sustainable solvents named deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have been developed, which share the promising solvent characteristics of ILs, such as thermal and chemical stability, low vapor pressure and design ability. In addition, the major advantages of DESs over ILs are their lower prices and easier preparation. Therefore, DESs have been considered to be a potential alternative to replace conventional organic solvents and ILs. Currently, the developed DESs may be classified into ionic and nonionic liquids. Typically, choline chloride (ChCl)/urea (1:2) is an ionic DES, while glucose/sucrose (1:1) is a nonionic DES. Although several reviews have covered advancements in DESs, in this review, we aim to provide a general insight into DESs, particularly ionic DESs, like choline-based DES, in terms of their preparation and application in the extraction of natural products (NPs) mainly from traditional Chinese medicines and the recovery of extracted compounds from their extracts. Additionally, various factors affecting the extraction efficiency of DESs are discussed.

Beckmann Rearrangement of Ketoxime Catalyzed by N-methyl-imidazolium Hydrosulfate

Beckmann rearrangement of ketoxime catalyzed by acidic ionic liquid-N-methyl-imidazolium hydrosulfate was studied. Rearrangement of benzophenone oxime gave the desirable product with 45% yield at 90 °C. When co-catalyst P₂O₅ was added, the yield could be improved to 91%. The catalyst could be reused three cycles with the same efficiency. Finally, reactions of other ketoximes were also investigated.

Palladium supported on phosphinite functionalized Fe3O4 nanoparticles as a new magnetically separable catalyst for Suzuki–Miyaura coupling reactions in aqueous media

Novel phosphinite functionalized magnetic (Fe₃O₄) nanoparticles having silica nanoshells containing an imidazolium ionic liquid moiety have been successfully synthesized and used as a support and stabilizer for palladium nanoparticles.

Selective hydrogenation of phenol and related derivatives

The selective hydrogenation of phenol and related derivatives to the corresponding cycloketones requires rationally designed catalysts, which have attracted significant attention.

Heterogenized cobalt oxide catalysts for nitroarene reduction by pyrolysis of molecularly defined complexes

Molecularly well-defined homogeneous catalysts are known for a wide variety of chemical transformations. The effect of small changes in molecular structure can be studied in detail and used to optimize many processes. However, many industrial processes require heterogeneous catalysts because of their stability, ease of separation and recyclability, but these are more difficult to control on a molecular level. Here, we describe the conversion of homogeneous cobalt complexes into heterogeneous cobalt oxide catalysts via immobilization and pyrolysis on activated carbon. The catalysts thus produced are useful for the industrially important reduction of nitroarenes to anilines. The ligand indirectly controls the selectivity and activity of the recyclable catalyst and catalyst optimization can be performed at the level of the solution-phase precursor before conversion into the active heterogeneous catalyst.