Assessment of Chitosan Based Catalyst and their Mode of Action

Introduction:

The popularity of chitosan is increasing among the researchers due to its environment friendly nature, high activity and easy approachability. Chitosan based catalysts are not only the most active and selective in catalytic reaction, but their “green” accessibility also makes them promising in organic catalysis. Chitosan is commonly extracted from chitin by alkaline deacetylation and it is the second abundant biopolymer in nature after cellulose. Chitosan based catalysts are advantageous by means of non-metallic activation as it involves small organic molecules. The robustness, nontoxicity, the lack of metal leaching possibility, inertness towards moisture and oxygen, easy handling and storage are the main advantages of organocatalysts. Traditional drawbacks associated with the metal-based heterogeneous catalysts, like longer reaction times during any synthesis, metal-leaching after every reaction and structural instability of the catalyst for prolonged recycling experiments are also very negligible for chitosan based catalysts. Besides, these catalysts can contribute more in catalysis due to their reusability and these special features increase their demand as the functionalized and profitable catalysts.

Objective:

The thorough description about the preparation of organocatalysts from chitosan and their uniqueness and novel activities in various famous reactions includes as the main aim of this review. Reusable and recycle nature of chitosan based organocatalysts gain the advantages over traditional and conventional catalyst which is further discussed over here.

Methods and Discussions:

In this article only those reactions are discussed where chitosan has been used both as support in heterogeneous catalysts or used as a catalyst itself without any co-catalyst for some reactions. Owing to its high biodegradability, nontoxicity, and antimicrobial properties, chitosan is widely-used as a green and sustainable polymeric catalyst in vast number of the reactions. Most of the preparations of catalyst have been achieved by exploring the complexation properties of chitosan with metal ions in heterogeneous molecular catalysis. Organocatalysis with chitosan is primarily discussed for carbon-carbon bond-forming reactions, carbon dioxide fixation through cyclo- addition reaction, condensation reaction and fine chemical synthesis reactions. Furthermore, its application as an enantioselective catalyst is also considered here for the chiral, helical organization of the chitosan skeleton. Moreover, another advantage of this polymeric catalyst is its easy recovery and reusability for several times under solvent-free conditions which is also explored in the current article.

Conclusion:

Important organocatalyzed reactions with either native chitosan or functionalized chitosan as catalysts have attracted great attention in the recent past. Also, chitosan has been widely used as a very promising support for the immobilization of catalytic metals for many reactions. In this review, various reactions have been discussed which show the potentiality of chitosan as catalyst or catalyst support.

Biomimetic and Bioinspired Synthesis of Nanomaterials/Nanostructures

In recent years, due to its unparalleled advantages, the biomimetic and bioinspired synthesis of nanomaterials/nanostructures has drawn increasing interest and attention. Generally, biomimetic synthesis can be conducted either by mimicking the functions of natural materials/structures or by mimicking the biological processes that organisms employ to produce substances or materials. Biomimetic synthesis is therefore divided here into "functional biomimetic synthesis" and "process biomimetic synthesis". Process biomimetic synthesis is the focus of this review. First, the above two terms are defined and their relationship is discussed. Next different levels of biological processes that can be used for process biomimetic synthesis are compiled. Then the current progress of process biomimetic synthesis is systematically summarized and reviewed from the following five perspectives: i) elementary biomimetic system via biomass templates, ii) high-level biomimetic system via soft/hard-combined films, iii) intelligent biomimetic systems via liquid membranes, iv) living-organism biomimetic systems, and v) macromolecular bioinspired systems. Moreover, for these five biomimetic systems, the synthesis procedures, basic principles, and relationships are discussed, and the challenges that are encountered and directions for further development are considered.

Magnetically recoverable chitosan-stabilised copper–iron oxide nanocomposite material as an efficient heterogeneous catalyst for azide–alkyne cycloaddition reactions

Chitosan-stabilised copper–iron oxide nanocomposite material is found to be a very efficient recyclable/reusable heterogeneous catalyst for azide–alkyne cycloaddition reactions under mild conditions.

Chitosan as a sustainable organocatalyst: a concise overview

Increased demand for more sustainable materials and chemical processes has tremendously advanced the use of polysaccharides, which are natural biopolymers, in domains such as adsorption, catalysis, and as an alternative chemical feedstock. Among these biopolymers, the use of chitosan, which is obtained by deacetylation of natural chitin, is on the increase due to the presence of amino groups on the polymer backbone that makes it a natural cationic polymer. The ability of chitosan-based materials to form open-network, macroporous, high-surface-area hydrogels with accessible basic surface sites has enabled their use not only as macrochelating ligands for active metal catalysts and as a support to disperse nanosized particles, but also as a direct organocatalyst. This review provides a concise overview of the use of native and modified chitosan, possessing different textural properties and chemical properties, as organocatalysts. Organocatalysis with chitosan is primarily focused on carbon-carbon bond-forming reactions, multicomponent heterocycle formation reactions, biodiesel production, and carbon dioxide fixation through [3+2] cycloaddition. Furthermore, the chiral, helical organization of the chitosan skeleton lends itself to use in enantioselective catalysis. Chitosan derivatives generally display reactivity similar to homogeneous bases, ionic liquids, and organic and inorganic salts. However, the introduction of cooperative acid-base interactions at active sites substantially enhances reactivity. These functional biopolymers can also be easily recovered and reused several times under solvent-free conditions. These accomplishments highlight the important role that natural biopolymers play in furthering more sustainable chemistry.

Coppercoresilvershell nanoparticle–yolk/shell Fe3O4@chitosan-derived carbon nanoparticle composite as an efficient catalyst for catalytic epoxidation in water

The fabrication of yolk/shell spheres consisting of a magnetic core and a chitosan-derived porous carbon shell, and plenty of tiny copper_coresilver_shell nanoparticles confined within the porous shell, as a catalyst for epoxidation reaction is reported.